Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise today to oppose the amendment addressing the patent settlements for generic claims. I am sympathetic to the intent of the sponsors of this amendment. I believe that some drug patent settlements may be improper and could be unfairly increasing drug prices for consumers. If that is in fact happening, we should stop the bad settlements and encourage the ones that work. The problem with this amendment, however, is that its scope is much broader and could lead to unintended consequences that could harm consumers and increase costs. That is why I must oppose it. The amendment uses a machete when a scalpel might solve the problem. Not all patent settlements are abusive. They do not all lead to higher costs. In fact, some settlements can actually expedite generic drugs coming to market. According to one recent study by RBC Capital Markets, patent settlements helped expedite 24 of the 37 most recent generic drug approvals. The amendment would allow competing generic manufacturers, in certain cases, to share the 180 days of exclusivity provided under the drug patent law known as Hatch-Waxman. This period of exclusivity was intended to create a market incentive for generic manufacturers to be the first to file a generic drug application with FDA. The amendment is intended to discourage generic manufacturers from reaching settlements with brand manufacturers to delay generic competition.…”