Tim Kaine: “the Food and Drug Administration's ``Purple Book'' provides patients, providers, and public health experts with key…”

“the Food and Drug Administration's ``Purple Book'' provides patients, providers, and public health experts with key information about FDA-licensed biological products. Providers rely on accurate and up-to-date information from this searchable online database to make crucial decisions regarding the treatment of their patients. The ``Purple Book'' provides transparency on the availability of biological products. This can help inform public health decision- making and increase competition among manufacturers to lower prices. Improvements to the ``Purple Book'' clarifying when biological products leave the market would allow the FDA and the public to monitor the availability of these key medications. That is why I am proud to join my colleagues, Senators Marshall, Hassan, and Cassidy, in introducing the Biologics Market Transparency Act, legislation that would extend to biological products certain reporting and transparency requirements that already exist for small molecule drugs. This is the Senate companion to legislation introduced by Representatives Kathy Manning and Richard Hudson in the House. It would require manufacturers of biological products to confirm that their products listed in the ``Purple Book'' are available for sale. This bill would also require manufacturers to report to the Secretary of Health and Human Services when their products are withdrawn from the market.…”