Copyright 2000 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
June 30, 2000, Friday, FIVE STAR LIFT EDITION
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A1
LENGTH: 1029 words
HEADLINE:
PATENT EXTENSION PROMISES A WINDFALL FOR MAKER OF ALLERGY DRUG;
CRITICS SAY IT WOULD KEEP COSTS HIGH FOR CONSUMERS
BYLINE: Deirdre Shesgreen; Post-Dispatch Washington
Bureau
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
As Congress bickers over a
prescription drug benefit to make medicine more affordable to seniors, lawmakers
are also floating a proposal that could provide a billion-dollar windfall to one
pharmaceutical giant.
At issue is a patent extension
for Schering-Plough Corp.'s anti-allergy drug Claritin. The company's patent on
the medicine expires in 2002, at which point generic drug companies could move
in and offer a cheaper version.
Staffers for Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah,
chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, drafted legislation to extend
Schering-Plough's patent and the patents on several other drugs; the staffers
began to circulate it this month. Critics say the bill would allow
Schering-Plough to protect the $ 2 billion in annual sales it reaps from
Claritin and that the move could cost consumers more than $ 7 billion over five
years.
A spokesman for Schering-Plough said the company is not seeking a
patent extension, but is pushing other legislation that could allow it to recoup
lost time Schering-Plough endured waiting for regulatory approval of the drug.
Hatch's bill surfaced after another lawmaker, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.,
started pushing a patent extension that would allow Columbia University to
continue to collect royalties on a drug manufacturing process that its
researchers developed. Gregg was trying to add the Columbia extension to a
military construction bill, and critics feared that Schering-Plough lobbyists
would try to hitch a ride on the same legislation.
"Another catch-call
spending bill is in the works," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the ranking Democrat
on the Judiciary Committee, said at a news conference Tuesday. "These
willy-nilly patent extension efforts will keep a handful of drugs at a very high
cost. This is why nobody wants this to see the light of day."
Sen. Dick
Durbin, D-Ill., said that because of the current debate over prescription drug
costs for the elderly, "America is tuned in to drug prices today more than ever,
and (lawmakers) can't get away from the fact that this would raise prices."
Some of the ire has been aimed at Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., who is also
a member of the Judiciary Committee. Schering-Plough contributed $ 50,000 to the
Ashcroft Victory Committee, a joint fund-raising account set up by Ashcroft and
the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The company made the contribution
in September.
Frank Clemente, director of Public Citizen's Congress
Watch, a group founded by consumer activist Ralph Nader, said the contribution
is the only such soft money donation the company made directly to a candidate,
as opposed to the party committees.
"It just stands out," he said. "I
can't imagine they would give such a contribution for any other reason that he
was tied to this effort. . . . This money is never given for nothing.
"We need people like him to stand up and say this is inappropriate,"
Clemente added, "to show he's not doing the bidding of Schering-Plough."
Ashcroft is a co-sponsor of another bill backed by Schering-Plough. That
legislation, introduced last year, would allow certain companies, including
Schering-Plough, to seek added protected market time for their drugs if they can
prove to the Patent and Trademark Office that they suffered undue regulatory
delays. The legislation is pending before the Judiciary Committee.
Ashcroft campaign spokesman David James dismissed the group's
accusations. "Public Citizen has zero credibility and is known as a
Democrat-based attack group," James said. The legislation Ashcroft has signed on
to "is a meritorious bill that allows administration officials to decide on
applications to extend the patents on lifesaving research," James said.
James also said that Ashcroft "does not receive a dime of this
contribution," which goes to the Republican Senatorial Committee. He noted that
Schering-Plough has made similar contributions to the Democratic Senatorial
Campaign Committee, which is supporting Gov. Mel Carnahan's campaign against
Ashcroft.
James said Ashcroft was not involved in the Claritin patent
extension and had no position on it. In the past, Ashcroft has supported patent
extensions on lifesaving medical research, James added.
Schering-Plough
spokesman William O'Donnell said the Hatch legislation "is not our bill" and
defended the company's earlier legislative push for a review process for
aggrieved companies.
"Our company believes Congress should establish a
fair and independent process for considering requests by certain pharmaceuticals
that have lost years of useful patent life due to lengthy delays in the
regulatory review process," O'Donnell said. "We are not seeking a patent
extension. We are looking for a fair and equitable process to make our case
heard."
O'Donnell said the company donated money to Ashcroft because he
is a good senator. "Senator Ashcroft is widely recognized as an advocate for the
advancement of technology and protection of intellectual property," O'Donnell
said. "Schering-Plough has supported Senator Ashcroft because we believe these
principals are key to maintaining the country's leadership position in the
discovery and development of therapies that can save lives and enhance the
quality of life."
Hatch also denied any plans to slip the bill into any
spending bill without public scrutiny. "This is a tempest in a teaspoon," he
said.
Hatch said his staff drafted the patent extension without his
knowledge and it "goes far beyond" the earlier legislation considered by his
committee. "Neither I nor my staff have ever attempted or said we would attempt,
anonymously or non-anonymously - to attach this draft proposal to" any
appropriations legislation, the statement said.
Democrats and consumer
groups are skeptical, saying that previous stealth efforts have cropped up every
year for the past four years. Although the two patents were not included in the
military construction bill, Democrats say there will be other targets as
Congress finishes its work on the 13 annual spending bills.
"They're
circling the wagons," one Democratic aide said of the Schering-Plough lobbyists,
"so it's not a dead issue."
LOAD-DATE: June 30, 2000
