With the defeat of Democrat Martha Coakley by Republican Scott Brown in the race to fill the seat of late Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, and the loss of the Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, the healthcare-reform bill stands on a knife’s edge. And how will pharmacies be reimbursed for dispensing generic drugs to Medicaid and Medicare patients if a health overhaul bill fails to pass? These topics, along with the issue of patent settlements vexing the branded and generic drug industries and a new GAO study showing that drug costs are soaring, are explored in depth in the latest installment of the ECRM Generics report.