How a Supreme Court fight over fish oil could raise your prescription drug costs

Health How a Supreme Court fight over fish oil could raise your prescription drug costs April 29, 20265:00 AM ET From By  Leslie Walker sinceLF/iStockphoto/Getty Images The United States pays undeniably high prices for brand-name drugs. But when it comes to generics — the cheaper copycat medicines that now fill nine out of every 10 prescriptions in America — the country gets a very good deal. Americans pay less, on average, for generic medications than people in any other peer nation. But the wait for those savings can be long, with some brand-name monopolies lasting decades before a generic can hit the market. That wait could get longer — depending on the outcome of a case the Supreme Court is hearing Wednesday. Sponsor Message Living Better How to navigate the maze of drug discounts to get the best price What's this legal fight all about? The case — Hikma v. Amarin — pits the generic drugmaker Hikma against Amarin, the maker of Vascepa, a brand-name drug made from purified fish oil for people at high risk of heart disease. The companies' dispute centers on a strategy known as "skinny labeling," which is used by generic firms to bring cheaper medications to market more quickly. When a brand-name drugmaker loses its patents on some — but not all — uses of a medication, generic competitors can snag a skinny label approval from the FDA. This allows companies to begin selling their cheaper version of the medicine — just for those unpatented uses. This shortcut can help firms avoid expensive patent litigation and deliver lower prices for patients and insurers sooner. More than two dozen copycat medicines have followed this path to market over the last decade, including knockoffs of some big-name blockbusters, like Crestor, the popular cholesterol-lowering pill. One study found that, by shepherding low-cost competition to market sooner, skinny labeling saved Medicare nearly $15 billion between 2015 and 2021. Law Supreme Court heard case on how to label risks of popu...