Political Quotes

“when large employers, unions, and progressive Members of Congress and governors and senior groups and consumer advocates join forces on the same issue, Congress listens. What is the issue? Prescription drugs and prescription drug prices. What is the remedy? Legislation pending in the Senate and House that would close loopholes in the Waxman-Hatch bill Congress passed in 1984. Overall, the law, which was intended to help consumers gain access to blockbuster drugs and to, eventually, lower-cost generics, has worked well. Waxman-Hatch ensured brand name manufacturers almost 2 decades of patent protection, promoting important innovation and ensuring huge profits for the prescription drug industry. Between 1983 and 1995, drug companies increased their R&D investment, in large part because of Waxman-Hatch, from 14 percent to 19 percent of sales. They earned quite a healthy profit on that investment. U.S. pharmaceutical sales rose 200 percent, from $17 billion to $57 billion. The act streamlined the generic drug approval process to help bring lower-cost prescription drugs to the market. Last year, generic drugs accounted for 42 percent of all prescriptions dispensed. But the big drug companies have been greedy; smart, but greedy. The industry has perfected the practice of attaching questionable patents to their drugs for the purpose of preventing generic drugs' entry into the market.”