There is a new price surge in the pharmaceutical industry -- for a limited number of government-issued vouchers that drug makers including AbbVie Inc. and Sanofi SA are buying to speed products to market.
Legal provisions enacted in 2007 and 2012 require the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to issue "priority review vouchers" as rewards to developers of drugs for rare pediatric conditions or tropical diseases like malaria. Congress intended the vouchers to encourage more research into underfunded diseases. Companies receive them when the FDA approves their drug for sale, and can redeem them to speed FDA consideration of a subsequent drug for any disease.
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