Frank Pallone: “this says at the same time the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson), who supports the amendment of the gentleman…”

“this says at the same time the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson), who supports the amendment of the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht), and wants to add a measure she is sponsoring to make it more difficult for brand-name drug companies to delay the market entry of generic medications. Again, that is something that is in the Democratic substitute. As the gentleman knows, if there is a patent exclusivity for a period of time, then of course the company that developed and gets the patent has an exclusive right. To be honest, something like 50 percent of the brand-name drugs are under patent right now, exclusivity, and therefore we cannot bring a generic to market. That basically inflates the price of the prescription drug. What happens is when those patents run out, the pharmaceutical companies use all kinds of gimmicks to try to delay the generic coming to market. That is what the gentlewoman is trying to eliminate. I know that the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) has a bill, and some of that language is included in our Democratic substitute that would close those loopholes. Again, this is a pricing issue. Because if we bring generics to market, we reduce the cost of prescription drugs.”