BERRY URGES OPPOSITION TO EFFORTS TO GIVE DRUG MAKERS EXTENDED MONOPOLY RIGHTS
Would protect competition in the pharmaceutical industry

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- United States Representative Marion Berry urged other Members of Congress this week to oppose efforts to give drug makers extended monopoly rights and protect competition in the pharmaceutical industry.

"It is unthinkable that at a time when government should be acting to give consumers greater access to prescription drugs, Congress is considering acting in a manner that would prevent competition in the prescription drug marketplace," Berry said. "Any effort to amend existing laws concerning the manufacturing and sale of generic drugs should balance the needs of the industry while ensuring patients have greater access to prescription drugs."

The House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property is planning to hold a hearing on April 15, 1999, that focuses on granting patent extensions to the $100 billion pharmaceutical industry. Pharmaceutical companies will be trying to convince lawmakers that in order to compete they need greater patent protection.

"It is important that pharmaceutical companies are appropriately rewarded for the many life-saving drugs they have developed over the last two decades, and the drugs should certainly have adequate patent protection to ensure their makers continue to develop new cures," Berry said. "However, it is impossible to overstate that fairness is not what drug makers are asking for in this instance. The strong patent protection currently enjoyed by drug makers helps the industry to qualify as the most profitable industry in existence where it has ranked for the past twenty years. Additional patent protection will further enrich the industry at the expense of sick patients."

Brand-name drug companies are already receiving additional money from patent extensions. As a result of legislation passed in the 104th Congress to implement the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the companies have received two additional years of patent protection, costing consumers an estimated $6.2 billion over the next 17 years.

A report released last year by Common Cause shows that brand-name pharmaceutical companies have acted to restrict access to generic dugs and cost consumers billions of dollars. Reports released by the minority staff of the Government Reform Committee show that pharmaceutical companies are forcing senior citizens and other consumers without coverage to pay almost twice as much for prescription drugs as big HMOs and the federal government.

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