EpiPen is not unique. It falls into a category of old drugs, many of which should have long been subject to generic competition.
The value that the generic drug industry brings to the U.S. healthcare system is indisputable.
We've had a long wrangle with the pharmaceutical industry about parallel imports, and what we were saying is we want to make medicines and drugs as affordable as a possible to what is largely a poor population.
One dirty tactic big pharmaceutical companies use is keeping drug prices artificially high through anti-competitive conduct, such as paying competitors millions of dollars to stop them from creating generic drugs.
Private companies mostly manufacture medications that resemble what we've already got. They get it patented and, with a hefty dose of marketing, a legion of lawyers, and a strong lobby, can live off the profits for years.
Brand-name drugs have no competition, since the government grants them very long, exclusive marketing rights.
If you look at the world's top 50 drugs being sold today, they are being marketed and sold by companies that did not invent them. I respect patents. I'll pay a royalty. But I shouldn't be denied the right to produce drugs for poor people at reasonable prices.
One of the biggest factors fueling the angst over drug prices in the U.S. is that some older medicines that should be sold cheaply as generics are still priced very high, often owing to a dwindling number of generic competitors and the rising cost of producing these drugs.
The higher cost of getting a generic drug approved by regulators means that many old medicines don't face competitors. It's only after substantial price hikes that these drugs offer enough revenue to offset the rising generic entry costs, and start to entice competition.
The key to the generic-drug economic model is to keep entry prices low enough to attract multiple competitors.
Many countries which are no longer able to afford their public health systems, which have made certain promises within their countries to purchase from free market or from other economies, are approaching us seeking help with the supply of generic drugs, which is opening a very big room of opportunity for us.
We should look for ways to expedite generic drug approvals, particularly for products that have a long history of being safe and effective.
We must work to repeal trade agreements that impede access to affordable generic drugs. We must work to cause the IMF and the World Bank to reduce and eventually eliminate the debt that takes poor nations' resources away from crises like AIDS. We must focus America's leadership on addressing and ending this epidemic.
In today's world, it is shortsighted to think that infectious diseases cannot cross borders. By allowing developing countries access to generic drugs, we not only help improve health in those nations, we also help ourselves control these debilitating and often deadly diseases.
The regulatory approach of the Food and Drug Administration and the Patent and Trademark Office has driven up the costs of generic drugs.
