Tuesday, January 29, 2013
But the extra money won't go to R & D.
Because they are just not making huge enough profits, biotech Pharma companies are working at state levels to tilt the playing field into their wallets. They already charge as much as they want for patented medicines, now they want to cock block generics using state laws.
In statehouses around the country, some of the nation’s biggest biotechnology companies are lobbying intensively to limit generic competition to their blockbuster drugs, potentially cutting into the billions of dollars in savings on drug costs contemplated in the federal health care overhaul law.Not hard to see Virginia in the forefront of screwing its own citizens for corporate profit. Is your state lining up to do the same?
The complex drugs, made in living cells instead of chemical factories, account for roughly one-quarter of the nation’s $320 billion in spending on drugs, according to IMS Health. And that percentage is growing. They include some of the world’s best-selling drugs, like the rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis drugs Humira and Enbrel and the cancer treatments Herceptin, Avastin and Rituxan. The drugs now cost patients — or their insurers — tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
Two companies, Amgen and Genentech, are proposing bills that would restrict the ability of pharmacists to substitute generic versions of biological drugs for brand name products.
Bills have been introduced in at least eight states since the new legislative sessions began this month. Others are pending.
The Virginia House of Delegates already passed one such bill last week, by a 91-to-6 vote.
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