1.   Consumer products companies took heat from generic competitors.

2.   Drug prices fall substantially after patents expire because the companies lose their monopolies and generic competitors force prices down.

3.   Glaxo lost patent protection for Zantac in its biggest market, the U.S., in July and immediately generic competitors entered the market.

4.   However, generic competitors including Genpharm will still have to resolve legal differences with Glaxo before marketing the drug, she said.

5.   Shellenberger and her allies plan to file similar lawsuits against other drugmakers who have used questionable ploys to impede generic competitors.

6.   The brand-name drug industry maintains it is entitled to the patent extension, which adds months of protection from generic competitors and means millions more in profits.

7.   The Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve generic competitors for these drugs, but analysts expect ones to appear in the future.

8.   The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a ruling in Washington late Thursday that grants three years of additional patent protection for drugmakers to use against generic competitors.

9.   Zeneca Group Plc officials are confident that their leading anti-hypertensive drug Zestril will continue to grow in the U.S. even after generic competitors hit the market next year.

10.   Merck also said its earnings fell in the first quarter as new generic competitors eroded sales of its mainstay diabetes drug Glucophage.