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)
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