I am pleased that late last night the Senate again supported lowering drug prices and maintaining a fair generic drug approval process by adding the Drug Competition Act to the Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003 (S. 1).  Last November, the Drug Competition Act passed the Senate by unanimous consent.  On Monday, Senator Grassley and I, along with Senators Cantwell, Durbin, Feingold, Kohl and Schumer, offered our bill as an amendment to the larger Medicare bill.  I hope that in this Congress it is actually enacted into law as part of the larger effort to improve the healthcare of millions of Americans.  Prescription drug prices are rapidly increasing, and they are a source of considerable concern to many Americans, especially senior citizens and families.  Generic drug prices can be as much as 80 percent lower than the comparable brand name versions.

While the Drug Competition Act is small in terms of length, it is large in terms of impact.  It will ensure that law enforcement agencies can take quick and decisive action against companies that are driven more by greed than by good sense.  It gives the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department access to information about secret deals between drug companies that keep generic drugs off the market.  This is a practice that hurts American families, particularly senior citizens, by denying them access to low-cost generic drugs, and further inflating medical costs.

Last July, the Federal Trade Commission released a comprehensive report on barriers the entry of generic drugs into the pharmaceutical marketplace.  The FTC had two recommendations to improve the current situation and to close the loopholes in the law that allow drug manufacturers to manipulate the timing of generics= introduction to the market.  One of those recommendations was simply to enact our bill, as the most effective solution to the problem of Asweetheart@ deals between brand name and generic drug manufacturers that keep generic drugs off the market, thus depriving consumers of the benefits of quality drugs at lower prices.  Indeed, at a hearing just yesterday in the Judiciary Committee, Chairman Timothy Muris of the FTC praised the Drug Competition Act in his testimony, and urged its passage.  In short, this bill enjoys the unqualified endorsement of the current FTC, which follows on the support by the Clinton Administration=s FTC during the initial stages of our formulation of this bill.  We can all have every confidence in the common sense approach that our bill takes to ensuring that our law enforcement agencies have the information they need to take quick action, if necessary, to protect consumers from drug companies that abuse the law.

Under current law, the first generic manufacturer that gets permission to sell a generic drug before the patent on the brand‑name drug expires, enjoys protection from competition for 180 days B a headstart on other generic companies.  That was a good idea B but the unfortunate loophole exploited by a few is that secret deals can be made that allow the manufacturer of the generic drug to claim the 180‑day grace period B to block other generic drugs from entering the market  B while, at the same time, getting paid by the brand‑name manufacturer not to sell the generic drug.