Sherrod Brown: “One is the Stabenow/Thune amendment No. 1011, cosponsored by Senator Lott of Mississippi and by me, which will stop drug…”

“One is the Stabenow/Thune amendment No. 1011, cosponsored by Senator Lott of Mississippi and by me, which will stop drug companies from intentionally jamming up the Food and Drug Administration approval process for generic drugs, exploiting the citizen petition process to block price competition in the marketplace. Free market economies rely on price competition. When brand-name drug companies block price competition, they are not only cheating generic drug manufacturers, they are cheating consumers, businesses, and tax-funded health care programs. None of us can afford that. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the Stabenow amendment will save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 10 years. Those are just the savings that accrue to tax-funded health programs. There will also be significant savings to consumers and employer-sponsored health plans. This amendment preserves the rights, as we should, of citizens to petition their government. But it stops the gaming of the patent system by the name-brand drug companies which have very effectively stymied price competition.”