The Supreme Court case that could slow generic drugs

An Arm and a Leg

Society & Culture, Medicine, Documentary, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2026

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s a case you’ve (probably) never heard of: This week, the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in Hikma v. Amarin — a legal battle that could impact how much you ultimately pay for prescription drugs.

Here’s why the case matters: As soon as a generic version of a brand-name drug comes to market, its price typically drops by half. Within 10 years, by more than 75%. Meaning: the sooner we have access to generics, the less we pay at the pharmacy counter.

But one of the fastest legal pathways for generic companies to get their drugs to market may be about to get a lot narrower – depending on how the court rules later this year.

Amarin, a brand-name drugmaker, has accused Hikma, a generic company, of encouraging doctors to infringe on their patent for a drug called Vascepa.

The case revolves around the legal concept of skinny labels: a carveout in drug patent law that allows generic companies to bring drugs to market when one of the brand-name drug’s patents has expired, but others haven’t.

And it raises the (unexpected) question of whether it’s OK for a generic drug company to call their product the generic version of something.

Legal experts help us unpack the nerdy details – including how this case came to be, and what’s at stake for both generic drug companies and anyone looking forward to one day paying less for an expensive brand-name drug.

Want to learn how these drug monopolies work – and came to be in the first place? Check out our previous episode: Why drugs cost so much, 101: Medicine monopolies

Here's a copy of this episode's transcript.

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Transcript

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0:30.4	essential stories. At the heart of each story are questions. What really happened? What really
0:36.6	mattered? What happens next? At NPR, we stand for
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0:45.6	and start your day knowing what matters and why.
0:48.5	Hey there. Dr. Anmel Gupta is a resident physician at the University of Michigan.
0:58.3	One day a week, he drives 30 miles north of Ann Arbor to a rural clinic.
1:03.2	And for a lot of his patients there, that's the only doctor they can get to within an hour.
1:07.2	They have to travel the furthest. They're often the ones that are uninsured or on Medicaid.
1:13.5	They often are coming and seeking care later than when you wish they had access to care.
1:21.4	So they're sicker. And the cost of prescription drugs comes up in like every single visit.
1:26.5	And I'm meeting patients who are just now being able to afford these medications who maybe weren't able to, five, ten years ago,
1:28.5	who needed it then.
1:29.6	Take statins, those drugs that lower cholesterol.
1:32.4	One of the most popular brand name versions, Crestor, finally went generic in 2016.
1:37.8	But before that, a lot of patients like Dr. Gupta's simply couldn't afford it.
	...

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