Revolving Door: How Drug Policy Loops Affect Access, Prices, and Patient Safety

When you hear revolving door, a cycle where industry insiders move between regulatory agencies and pharmaceutical companies, shaping policy to favor corporate interests, it’s not just about politics—it’s about your prescriptions. This loop lets drugmakers stretch exclusivity, delay cheaper generics, and keep prices high—all while claiming they’re protecting innovation. The result? Millions of Americans pay more for life-saving drugs because the system is designed to rotate, not reset.

It starts with regulatory exclusivity, FDA-granted market protection that blocks generics even without a patent. A new drug might get 5 years of exclusivity for new chemical entities, 7 for rare diseases, or 12 for biologics. These aren’t patents. They’re legal pauses built into the system, and they’re often layered on top of each other. Then there’s pharmaceutical patents, strategic filings that cover dosing, delivery methods, or formulations—not the active ingredient itself. These are called "evergreening" tactics. A company doesn’t need to invent a new drug; it just needs to tweak the pill and file a new patent. The FDA exclusivity, a set of rules meant to encourage innovation but often used to block competition becomes a shield, not a spark.

This isn’t theoretical. Look at the posts here: one explains how regulatory exclusivity delays generic entry by years, another shows how pharmaceutical patents are litigated in the Federal Circuit Court, and another breaks down how authorized generics and first-to-file generics fight to break the cycle. You’ll see how drugmakers use legal maneuvers to keep prices high, how patients get stuck paying more than they should, and how the same players who write the rules are the ones who benefit from them. The revolving door isn’t just a metaphor—it’s a business model.

What you’ll find in these articles isn’t theory. It’s real-world impact. How a single FDA rule can delay a $100-a-pill drug by five years. How a patent on a pill’s coating can block a generic that’s chemically identical. How a court decision in Washington can decide whether a drug stays expensive or drops to pennies. These aren’t abstract debates. They’re decisions that affect whether someone skips a dose, fills a prescription, or goes without treatment.

This collection doesn’t just show you the problem. It shows you the mechanics—the legal tools, the loopholes, the players—and how they connect. You’ll learn how to spot when a drug isn’t really new, how to understand why your generic took forever to appear, and why the same companies keep winning, year after year. The revolving door keeps spinning. But now you know how it works—and who it’s spinning for.