Political Quotes

“Mr. President, my amendment is based on legislation I introduced earlier this year, obviously quite recently. The cosponsors of that bill, which is called the Fair Prescription Drug Competition Act, are Senator Shaheen, Senator Leahy, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, Senator Inouye, Senator Stabenow, and Senator Schumer, who is on the Judiciary Committee. I wish to acknowledge that the managers of this bill, Chairman Leahy and Senator Grassley, have been steadfast partners in pushing the Federal Trade Commission to investigate further consumer access to generic drugs, which is a huge problem. We do a lot of talking about the health care bill and a lot of other things about saving money and saving consumers money. This is a bill which would do this, if I were allowed to actually proceed to it. This amendment eliminates one of the most widely abused loopholes that brand-name drug companies use to extend their shelf life, their monopoly, and limit consumer access to lower cost generic drugs which are just as good and just the same, but they have a system to work on that. It ends the marketing of so-called authorized generic drugs during the 180-day marketing exclusivity period that Congress designed to give real low-cost generics a major incentive to enter the market. What was happening was the brand-name drug companies had their 18 years of exclusivity. That is a monopoly time unrivaled.…”