Orrin Hatch: “Senator Durbin and I wanted to take this opportunity to urge support for our amendment which is intended to speed up…”

“Senator Durbin and I wanted to take this opportunity to urge support for our amendment which is intended to speed up generic drug reviews at the Food and Drug Administration. We are pleased to announce that the Hatch-Durbin amendment is cosponsored by Senators DeWine, Leahy, Wyden, Feinstein, Graham of Florida and Voinovich. Specifically, our amendment increases funding for FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Review by $2.0 million over the Committee-recommended amount. We intend these funds to be used to provide much-needed additional resources, that is, appropriately-equipped staff, to the Office of Generic Drugs. This will help them reduce review times for generic alternatives to brand-name pharmaceuticals, a considerable benefit to the consumer. One way they can do this is by establishing an additional chemistry division which will allow OGD to increase its efficiency thus permitting applications for new generic drugs to be considered and approved much more rapidly, giving patients access to these products much more quickly. Mr. President, when I travel throughout my home state of Utah, I am besieged by constituents who raise very valid complaints about the need to improve drug coverage for the elderly and others who cannot afford needed medicines. I am very sympathetic to those concerns, and have made this a high legislative priority.”