Generic drugs online

Source: Washington Observer Reporter

Date: 19-Sep-2008

Expanding the use of low-cost generic pharmaceuticals would be near the top of the health-care agendas of both Barack Obama and John McCain if elected in November, advisers for the presidential contenders said Thursday.

While the campaigns continue to trade barbs over who is best qualified to change Washington, the candidates' advisers praised generic drugs as a tool to lower drug costs.

"We know that expanding the use of generics and eliminating barriers to that goal must be a centerpoint of any health reform effort," said Dora Hughes, a health-care adviser for Obama, the Democratic senator from Illinois.

McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin echoed that sentiment: "Controlling health-care costs has to be the imperative of any effective health-care reform."

Speaking at a conference for generic drug company executives, both campaigns pledged their support to help create a market for generic biotech drugs, a long-sought goal of industry leaders like Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Mylan Inc.

Southpointe-based Mylan's shares closed at $11.76 Thursday, up 75 cents, or 6.81 percent.

Unlike traditional chemical drugs, biotech companies currently face no generic competition in the U.S. because the Food and Drug Administration lacks authority to approve copies of biotech medicines. Generally, biotech drugs are more complicated than regular drugs because they are made from living cells or bacteria.

The generic and biotech drug industries have spent millions of dollars in recent years lobbying Congress over how generic biotech drugs should be approved. Perhaps the greatest disagreement is over how long a biotech drug should be on the market before a generic drugmaker can challenge its patent. The Biotech Industry Organization has called for 14 years of market exclusivity, while its generic counterpart says drugs should get no more than five years of protection.

It appears biotech companies like Amgen Inc. and Genentech will face strong push-back no matter which candidate next occupies the White House.

"Senator McCain's instincts are to make the period as short as possible so that you can get products to market more quickly," Holtz-Eakin said of the Arizona Republican.

Obama also supports making the exclusivity period as short as possible for biotech drugs, Hughes said.

Lehman Brothers analyst Tony Clapsis this week wrote in a research note that Congress likely will pass legislation allowing generic biotech drugs by 2010. He expects the final compromise will give biotech drugs about 10 years on the market before facing competition.