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Senior Citizen Politics
Committee Passes Bill to Prevent Drug Companies from
Conspiring to Block Generics
Feb. 17, 2007 - The
Senate Judiciary
Committee on Thursday approved legislation (S
316) that would prohibit brand-name pharmaceutical companies
from paying generic drug companies to delay market introduction of
generic competitors, CQ Today reports. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Herb
Kohl (D-Wis.), chairman of the Senate's Special Committee on Aging, was
approved by a voice vote with no amendments.
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Related Stories |
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Senate Bill to Stop Pay-Offs that Delay Generic
Drugs Coming to Market
Key sponsor is Herb Kohl, new chair of Special
Committee on Aging
January 26, 2007 – A practice that has long
aggravated many senior citizens, struggling to pay for the prescription
drugs they need, may soon come to an end. A bill to "explicitly" prohibit
brand-name drug manufacturers from using pay-off agreements to keep less
expensive generic equivalents off the market was announced in the senate
by the new chairman of the Special Committee on Aging, Herb Kohl (D-WI).
Read more...
Read more
on
Politics for Senior Citizens |
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The bill is aimed at settlements in patent disputes
that increasingly include agreements to delay generic competition in
exchange for payments from brand-name companies to generic drug makers
-- a practice known as exclusion payment settlements, according to the
Federal Trade
Commission. According to FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz, the
commission tried to ban the practice in the past. However, two appellate
court decisions in 2005 "took a lenient view of the agreements," CQ
Today reports. At a January hearing of the Judiciary Committee,
Leibowitz said, "Exclusion payment settlements are highly profitable for
brand-name and generic firms. If such payments are lawful, companies
have compelling incentives to use them." Leibowitz added, "Such
settlements restrict competition at the expense of consumers, whose
access to lower-priced generic drugs is delayed, sometimes for many
years." Some Republicans have "expressed misgivings" about the bill and
"indicated that without significant changes," they would oppose it on
the Senate floor, CQ Today reports (Wayne, CQ Today, 2/15). Sen. Orrin
Hatch (R-Utah) said the bill "takes away some legitimate rights of
consumers" (CongressDaily, 2/15).
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