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Consumer Report looks at how "sweetheart deals and patent extensions keep lower-cost generic drugs from consumers." The story lists several approaches that both generic manufacturers and brand-name companies have used to gain and keep market exclusivity. These include: "sneaking patent-existing riders into complex and unrelated legislative procedures; paying chemical supply houses not to sell needed ingredients to rival drug manufacturers; paying competitors to stay out of the market; filing unfounded "citizen petitions" and patents to delay the marketing of a generic drug." The reporter points to specific examples of how pharmaceutical companies have taken advantage of loopholes in current law.

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