US Judiciary Committee advances four bills to curb antitrust pharma practices
The US Senate Judiciary Committee has unanimously voted to pass four bills that aim to crack down on anti-competitive practices in the pharmaceutical industry.
The bills will help the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other agencies tackle antitrust issues in the pharmaceutical market such as pay-for-delay deals which delay the entry-into-market of biosimilars and generics.
The bills are co-sponsored by Iowa senator Chuck Grassley, who said: “These commonsense bills will make it easier for patients to access generic prescription drugs by holding drug companies accountable for any anti-competitive behaviour without interfering with their innovation.
“I’m glad my colleagues agree and voted to pass these bipartisan proposals out of committee. I’ll continue my work to improve affordability for medications, but these bills are a great step in the right direction.”
The next step for the four bills will be a vote before the full Senate and then onto the House of Representatives. If the House votes to pass the bills, the final step would require President Biden to sign the bills into law.
The Four Acts
The Stop STALLING Act looks to reduce the filing of “sham petitions” with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to interfere with the approval of generics and biosimilars by giving the FTC more power to take action against these petitions.
Targeting pay-for-delay deals is the Preserving Access to Affordable Generics and Biosimilars Act. This looks to crack down on deals between drug developers and follow-on drug manufacturers to delay the entry of generics, interchangeable biologics and biosimilars into the market.
The Prescriptions Pricing for the People Act asks the FTC to consider the impact of consolidation in the pharmaceutical market on pricing and provide policy recommendations to Congress to protect consumers from the impacts.
The Affordable Perscriptions for Patents Act looks to curb “product hopping” practices, in which drug manufacturers force consumers to hard-switch to a new treatment protected by minor patent alterations in order to delay generics.