Health Reform Law’s Generic Provision Gets Mixed Review
A provision in the health care reform law allows biotechnology companies to maintain exclusive ownership of their brand-name drug data for 12 years, after which the information becomes available for other firms to develop less-expensive, generic versions of drugs. Supporters of the provision say it is necessary because it often takes 15 years and costs $1.2 billion to develop such drugs, but critics say it could delay consumer access to critical drugs.
- "New Rules on Generics Seen as Mixed Blessing" (Colliver, San Francisco Chronicle, 3/28).