Biotech Drug Copies Could Be Held Up 13 Years Under Senate Plan

Catherine Larkin of Bloomberg.com reports that Biotechnology drugs made by Amgen Inc. and Biogen Idec Inc. couldn’t be copied and sold for lower prices for 13 1/2 years after they’re marketed, or twice the time urged by President Barack Obama, under a Senate proposal...Generic copies of these treatments are needed to help cut costs in the overhaul of the nation’s $2.5 trillion health- care system, according to Obama.

In an email to Catherine Larkin, Katie Huffard executive director of the Coalition for a Competitive Pharmaceutical Market, a Washington- based organization of employers, insurers and consumer groups that have lobbied for generic drugs, said “At a time when policy makers are looking to lower health costs so more Americans can afford care, Senator Kennedy and others want to go in the opposite direction by keeping monopoly pricing."

What do you think about this issue? Will biosimiliars eventually have to wait 13 years?

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