back
Some
related articles : |
 |
Energy and
Commerce To Take Up Generic Drug Bill Next Week; Full House Unlikely
To Act
KFF, October 03,
2003
The House Energy
and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing next week to
discuss a generic drug bill (S 812) approved by
the Senate in July, but the House "still appears unlikely to
act" on the legislation, CongressDaily/AM
reports (Rovner, CongressDaily/AM,
10/3). The bill would allow brand-name drug companies to receive
only one 30-month patent extension per product, closing loopholes in
the 1984 Hatch-Waxman Act that pharmaceutical companies have used to
delay generic competition. The legislation also would prevent
brand-name drug companies from paying generic manufacturers to keep
their products off the market and would allow generic drug companies
to legally challenge "frivolous patents," including
"superficial changes" in a treatment's color or physical
design intended only to "stifle competition" (Kaiser Daily Health Policy
Report, 10/2). House Democrats have launched a
campaign to bring the bill straight to the floor through a discharge
petition, but have not obtained the required number of signatures.
Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), ranking member of the House Energy and
Commerce Subcommittee on Health,
said that the legislation would prevent brand-name drug companies
from delaying generic competition "indefinitely." Brown
accused the House of "failing to discharge its constitutional
duty" for not addressing the bill. Meanwhile, a spokesperson
for House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Billy Tauzin (R-La.)
said that "it looks like the clock will run out" on
prescription drug reimportation legislation in the current
legislative session (CongressDaily/AM, 10/3)
|
FAIR USE NOTICE: This
page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Action on Aging
distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such
copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to
use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go
beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
|
