On the recordMay 24, 2012
I thank Senator Vitter for his comments and for his strong support of this amendment. I thank all of the other cosponsors of the legislation. If we are interested in promoting competition in the health care field so that we can keep prices down, then we need to support this amendment. That is exactly what this does. Under our law in this country, we provide exclusive rights to a company that develops a drug to sell that drug during the time the patent is in effect. But what we are concerned with here is that after that patent is no longer valid, companies are still extending their exclusivity, extending their time when they don't have any competition by entering into these agreements. So we think they can settle their disputes--we don't have a problem there--but they cannot keep other generic manufacturers from coming to the market who also have demonstrated the invalidity of a patent. If we are worried about the cost of health care to the Federal Government--the Federal Government is paying too much for prescription drugs because of this flaw in the Hatch-Waxman Act that we are trying to correct. If we are worried about keeping prices down for hospitals, insurance companies, and consumers, this amendment will help to do that. I urge my colleagues to support the amendment. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
