Patrick Leahy: “in the last Congress I introduced a bill, S. 2993, with Senator Kohl to give the Federal Trade Commission, FTC, and the…”

“in the last Congress I introduced a bill, S. 2993, with Senator Kohl to give the Federal Trade Commission, FTC, and the Department of Justice, DOJ, the ability to effectively enforce antitrust laws concerning contract and payment arrangements between drug companies which could hurt consumers. Unfortunately, no action was taken on that Leahy-Kohl bill, and the newspapers are now full of articles about allegations that Shering-Plough paid $90 million to generic drug manufacturers to delay sales of a low-cost generic drug taken by heart patients. While these allegations have yet to be resolved for those particular companies, this story highlights the need to pass legislation to prevent this type of problem from happening in the future. If Dante were writing The Inferno today, he might well have reserved a special place for those who engage in these anti-consumer conspiracies. The Federal Trade Commission deserves credit for exposing this problem, during last Congress and this Congress. Under the bill we are introducing today, companies are required to give the FTC and the Justice Department the information they need to prevent manufacturers of patented drugs--often brand-name drugs--from simply paying generic drug companies to keep lower-cost products off the market. These deals which prevent competition hurt senior citizens, hurt families, and cheat healthcare providers.”