Generic and brand-name drug makers face off

"Teva Pharmaceuticals, a leading manufacturer of generic drugs, has been aggressively lobbying Congress to scrap provisions in the health care bills it claims would shut it out of the biologic drug market for too long," Roll Call reports. Lobbyists for the biologics makers have charged, however, that Teva is hypocritical because it is fighting to restrict generic production of its own brand-name product. "Depending on which business hat they are wearing, they are coming up with different scientific standards," one biologics lobbyist said. "The complaints underscore how bitter the high-stakes battle between generic and brand-name drug companies has become as Congress decides how boldly to restrict entry into the potentially lucrative generic biologic, or biosimilar, market." Current proposals would give brand-name makers 12 years of exclusivity. Generics makers hope to bring that time down to five to seven years (Roth, 11/18).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.