Generic Drugs Can Physically Resemble Brand-Name Counterparts, Court Rules

Under some circumstances, producers of generic drugs can manufacture copies of brand-name medications that physically resemble the original medication, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on May 23, AP/Las Vegas Sun reports. The decision is the result of a case in which Shire Laboratories last year sued Barr Laboratories over a generic version of its hyperactivity drug Adderall. Shire since 1996 has made the drug in different colors to indicate dosage; smaller doses are blue and larger doses come in light orange, the AP/Sun reports. Barr, which began selling a generic version of Adderall in 1998, uses the same dose-based color scheme. Shire asked for an injunction to make Barr change the colors of its generic pills. In its ruling, the federal appeals court upheld a lower-court's ruling that denied the injunction. The court said producing pills that look alike benefited the drug's primary users (Caruso, AP/Las Vegas Sun, 5/24).