The ongoing regulation of generic drugs.

The Hatch–Waxman Act set the rules under which generic pharmaceutical products could compete with brand-name products. Richard Frank writes that market participants have responded to the regulations in ways that serve their own interests. Richard Frank discusses the law regulating generic drugs, the ways in which pharmaceutical manufacturers have responded to it, and its applicability to biologic agents. Dr. Frank is a professor of health economics at Harvard Medical School, Boston.