They've been thrashing this around on the Yahoo thread today. Hopefully it won't have too much of an effect on SEPR but I'm not crazy about the news. Seems pretty typical though. Big pharma holds on to their cash cows tooth and nail it seems. nt.excite.com
Schering-Plough's Legislation to Protect Claritin Will
Cost American Allergy Sufferers $250 Million
WASHINGT0N, Oct. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Efforts by brand name
drug company Schering-Plough to slip special interest legislation
into the Omnibus Spending bill now before Congress to protect its
Claritin brand antihistamine from competition could cost millions
of American allergy sufferers $250 million a year in unnecessary
health care costs, according to the National Pharmaceutical
Alliance (NPA).
Schering-Plough lobbyists are meeting with legislators today on
Capitol Hill to convince them to support the legislation, Item #69,
that would extend the patent on Claritin. If the company succeeds,
consumers will have to wait three more years to benefit from the
introduction of less-costly generic versions.
Milan Puskar, CEO of Mylan Laboratories, Inc., an NPA
member company and the country's largest manufacturer of
generic pharmaceuticals, said: "Using our own elected officials to
rip-off American consumers to the tune of a quarter billion dollars
a year is outrageous. It has to be stopped -- today. You better
bet if Schering-Plough gets away with it, every brand name drug
company in the country will try the same shifty backroom tactics
to protect their products from fair competition."
Claritin, the world's best-selling antihistamine, was prescribed
over 13 million times in 1996. In 1997, the drug netted
Schering-Plough nearly a billion dollars in sales. Generic drugs
typically cost half the price of a brand name version and take half
the market within two years. A generic version of Claritin could
save consumers over $250 million.
Schering-Plough has already received two Claritin patent
extensions; two years under the Hatch-Waxman Act, and two
more years under GATT enabling legislation. This provided
Claritin with a total patent life of 21 years -- four more years than
Schering-Plough could have expected when developing this drug.
NPA Legislative Counsel Tom Long said, "Congress should
continue to represent consumer interests over those of a single
corporation. They must reject this latest proposal."
The National Pharmaceutical Alliance represents over 160 generic
pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors of high-quality,
less-costly generic pharmaceuticals. |
