Category Archives: Jim’s Corner

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, by a vote of 47 to 11, overwhelmingly adopted an amendment creating a regulatory pathway for biosimilars that will provide 12 years of data exclusivity for innovative biologics. The strong bipartisan support for this amendment to the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act marks the second win this month for a fair and balanced approach to biosimilars market entry. This vote was a clear victory for patients. The ALS Association Read More >

Biomedical innovation is not only key to our industry’s future, but more importantly, continued medical breakthroughs are vital to patients living with debilitating diseases and their families. Without ongoing progress in our industry, patients of today and tomorrow have limited hope for future cures and therapies. Many patient groups have entered the debate on Capitol Hill over establishing a pathway for approval of biosimilars because they know how critical continued innovation is to finding new Read More >

Last evening the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee adopted an amendment to the healthcare reform package that provided 12 years of data exclusivity for innovative biologics. This event was a significant victory for our companies and for patients. Two and a half years ago Senator Clinton and Congressman Waxman introduced bills that provided zero years of data exclusivity. Following extensive negotiations, Senators Kennedy, Enzi, Hatch, Schumer and Clinton agreed to a bill Read More >

As part of our public education/industry branding campaign, BIO sponsored a special section on biotechnology which ran in The Washington Post on Wednesday, June 24: http://ukpublic.mediaplanet.com/biotechwashpostfinal.pdf The insert provides a general introduction to biotech, emphasizing how biotechnology is helping to heal, feed and fuel the world.  We also used the piece to disseminate some of our key messages surrounding biosimilars. The special section was included in the 713,000 printed copies of the Post distributed in Read More >

The health reform debate is heating up and, in at least one respect, slowing down a bit. On Sunday, President Obama, PhRMA and the Senate Finance Committee announced an agreement to help close the coverage gap in the Medicare prescription drug program to help reduce the cost of comprehensive health-reform.  Under the proposal, U.S. drug companies would provide half-price discounts to Medicare recipients in the “doughnut hole” and provide other unspecified discounts and rebates for Read More >