Press Release
December 24, 2009
GPhA Statement on Senate Health Care Reform Bill
The following is a statement from Kathleen Jaeger, President and CEO of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA), on the Senate passage of health care reform legislation:
“The bill passed by the Senate, unfortunately, amounts to a treasure trove to brand drug companies who stand to make enormous profits from health care reform – putting brand drug profits over patients. This bill is a missed opportunity to expand access to affordable medicine while also reducing drug costs. This bill is no holiday present to American consumers.
With generics saving the health care system one billion dollars every three days, Congress should be looking at increasing, not decreasing, access to safe, effective and affordable generic and biogeneric medicines. Real reform should bend the pharmaceutical cost curve in the right direction. Yet, as it stands, brand drug companies are poised to receive gold nuggets in their stockings, whereas consumers are about to get a handful of coal."
http://gphaonline.org/media/press-releases/2009/gpha-statement-senate-health-care-reform-bill------------------------------------
Press Release
November 19, 2009
Senate HCR Bill Gratuitously Extends Biologic Monopolies: Lifts Brand Profits to New Heights At Consumer Expense
The following is a statement from Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA) President and CEO Kathleen Jaeger on the Biologics Provision of the Senate Health Care Reform proposal introduced yesterday.
“Just when you think the pro-BIO and PhRMA provisions in health care reform couldn’t get any more favorable for them, the Senate health care reform bill has further disappointed consumers by adding additional monopoly protection to expensive biologic medicines. Regardless of the motivation, the biologic provision in this bill takes the already egregious and unwarranted 12 years of exclusivity and extends it. The Senate leadership had the opportunity to address the deficiencies of the House HCR bill and to fulfill the Senate HELP Committee’s commitment to close down a major loophole known as “evergreening,” and deliver a more reasonable biogenerics pathway to consumers, labor, businesses, generic manufacturers and employers. Instead, they have provided further hurdles to access more affordable medicines.
“We have strongly urged Congress to put patients over brand company profits by fixing the generic biologics provisions of HCR. Yet, the relentless and powerful brand industry has managed not only to maintain outrageous and excessive product monopolies – but somehow increase their profits under the Senate HCR bill . As it stands now, the Senate version not only does nothing to increase timely access, but rather it further delays competition from more affordable generic medicines.
“It’s an absolute and unequivocal shame that what should be a biogeneric provision designed to expand access to lifesaving medicines and to substantially reduce health care costs – a potential “HCR game changer”…benefits only brand companies. In the name of true health care reform, it is incumbent upon Congress to strip the anti-consumer biologic provision out of health care reform.”
GPhA represents the manufacturers and distributors of finished generic pharmaceuticals, manufacturers and distributors of bulk active pharmaceutical chemicals, and suppliers of other goods and services to the generic drug industry. Generics represent 72% of the total prescriptions dispensed in the United States, but only 17% of all dollars spent on prescription drugs. For more information about the industry, visit www.gphaonline.org
http://gphaonline.org/media/press-releases/2009/senate-hcr-bill-gratuitously-extends-biologic-monopolies-lifts-brand-profi
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