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Biotech / Medical : Elan Corporation, plc (ELN)
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To: All Mtn Ski who wrote (688)11/17/1999 11:39:00 PM
From: blankmind   of 10345
 
Drug's Patent Extension Falters

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday indefinitely postponed consideration of a bill to extend the patent for Claritin, the nation's best-selling allergy prescription medication.

Panel members, including sponsoring Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., said the end-of-year rush to adjourn muddied the debate.

But criticism from fellow Democrats over whether the bill would help or hurt consumers also stalled the matter. Just last week, Vice President Al Gore criticized the high price of prescription drugs and proposed measures to get lower-priced generic versions onto the market more quickly.

Torricelli's Democratic colleagues on the panel, Sens. Charles Schumer of New York and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, have said his bill would cost consumers more.

The price of Claritin is so high -- up to $2.66 per daily tablet -- that some health insurance companies no longer pay for it. The drug is manufactured by Schering-Plough Corp. of Madison, N.J. Its patent expires in 2002.

Torricelli's bill would let Schering-Plough petition the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for three years of additional patent protection on grounds that the Food and Drug Administration took an excessively long time to approve its use.

The bill would also allow three-year extensions of the 20-year patents on seven other drugs made by American and European companies.
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