Longtime Liberal Advocate to Lead Generic Drug Group
will be interesting to see how this pairing works.
nytimes.com
By REED ABELSON
Ralph G. Neas, a longtime advocate for liberal causes and the face of some of the biggest Supreme Court nomination fights in recent decades, has been named the new chief executive of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, a Washington-based industry group representing generic drug makers and suppliers.
Mr. Neas, 65, who begins his new position next Monday, described the generic industry in an interview as a rare success story in the nation’s quest to contain its health care costs.
Mr. Neas described his new role as making sure policy makers and the public were better aware of the industry’s achievements, arguing that the industry has saved Americans hundreds of billions of dollars in the last decade.
“I’m anxious to tell that story,” he said.
Mr. Neas, who is perhaps best known for leading the successful fight against President Reagan’s nomination of Judge Robert H. Bork to the Supreme Court, has had a long history of championing civil rights.
In addition to serving as the executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights for more than a dozen years, he has served as president and chief executive for People for The American Way until a few years ago.
About two years ago, Mr. Neas became the chief executive of the National Coalition on Health Care, a group with broad support from business, unions and others. Mr. Neas said he planned to represent the generic drug makers in the efforts of a alliance that was recently formed by the coalition that is meant to address the nation’s high health care costs.
Containing the rising cost of medical care is essential to the sustainability of the nation’s health care system and the overall economy, Mr. Neas said. “It’s a national security issue,” he said.
In his new role, Mr. Neas said the association would continue its work in making sure people have access to less expensive generic alternatives for more of the medicines they take, including biologic drugs that are made from living cells. Those drugs are often extremely expensive and have been largely spared competition from the generic makers.
“It’s just beginning with respect to the biologics,” said Mr. Neas.
Mr. Neas succeeds Kathleen Jaeger, who left the association last year. |
