A proposal supported by President Barack Obama, which would have ended up placing a ban on multibillion-dollar deals between giant pharmaceutical companies and their generic rivals, was dropped from the healthcare legislation, looking to gain approval this weekend, at the very last minute.

The agreements have managed to come under the scrutiny microscope of antitrust officials from across Europe and the US, because they insist that these specifically allow branded drug manufacturers to pay off potential generic competitors, thereby keeping them away from the market.

As has been revealed by the Federal Trade Commission, such deals end up costing customers an estimated $3.5 Billion (2.5 Billion Euros, 2.3 Billion Pounds) every year.

Last month, the Obama Administration had demanded for "pay for delay" deals to be "outlawed". It was one of the very few suggestions that the White House had tried to push for lawmakers to adopt as they prepared to refurbish the legislation.

Chairman of the FTC, Jon Leibowitz has stressed that the dropping of the provision is just another sign of the complexity of passing the bill through the reconciliation process, and was not due to the lack of political support for the development.