UAEM Calls on AAU to Withdraw Endorsement of Eshoo-Barton Follow-on Biologics Bill
Contact: Sam Houshower
Email: houshower [at] berkeley [dot] edu
For Immediate Release
UAEM URGES AAU TO WITHDRAW ENDORSEMENT OF ESHOO-BARTON FOLLOW-ON BIOLOGICS BILL
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) today called on Robert M. Berdahl, President of the Association of American Universities (AAU), to withdraw its recent endorsement of H.R. 5629, the “Pathway for Biosimilars Acts,” which includes a term of exclusivity for market registration data that would effectively increase the length of patents on biologic drugs by up to 14.5 years. This is in contrast to the normal five years of market registration data exclusivity currently in place for small-molecule drugs. Biologics include critical medicines such as insulin and most vaccines, as well as many of the most exciting new treatments that are emerging for conditions such as cancer and autoimmune disease.
The additional exclusivity terms in H.R. 5629 will allow drug companies to keep the price of medicines high by delaying the onset of the generic competition that makes medicines affordable to most people. For example, generic competition has in recent years brought the cost of HIV/AIDS treatment from $15,000 per patient per year to $99 today, making the treatment of millions in developing countries possible. The current cost of brand biologics puts them out of the reach of many. For example, daclizumab, a biologic drug used to prevent organ transplant rejection, costs around $6,300 for a single course of therapy. UAEM argues that universities, as non-profit institutions with a mission to advance knowledge for the global public good, should not take a position that increases the commercial returns on biologic drugs at the expense of access.
Ethan Guillen, Executive Director of UAEM, said, “There is obviously a need for a pathway for generic biologics but this is not it. The AAU needs to explain why nonprofit universities think the desperately poor around the world, not to mention American consumers, should have to wait over a decade to be able to buy affordable, life-saving generic vaccines.” Read more »