Copyright 1999 Gannett Company, Inc.
USA TODAY
November 17, 1999, Wednesday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 26A
LENGTH: 392 words
HEADLINE:
Current process too political
BYLINE: Hugh A. D'Andrade
BODY:
When Congress considers a proposal that both
removes political
horsetrading from an issue and promotes research to
produce drugs
that can save lives or improve the quality of
life, such a proposal
deserves support.
Legislation dealing with
the patent life of Claritin has been
subject to an
extraordinary amount of misinformation and confusion.
To set the record
straight, this legislation will not automatically
extend the
patent life of Claritin, or any other drug.
Instead,
the legislation calls for a fair, independent and open process
-- outside of the political arena -- to determine whether Claritin
and
six other drugs were unfairly denied patent
life during the
1980s.
Most people believe that drug
patents are equal in length and
that every drug's
patent clock begins ticking the moment it lands
on a pharmacy
shelf. That is not the case. The time a drug spends
in
regulatory review is subtracted from its patent life. The
patent
life of a toy can be 20 years, but for most
drugs the maximum
is 14 years. Claritin, however, received
only nine years because
of an unusually long and delayed regulatory review,
which unfairly
lopped years off its patent life.
To address the issue of patent fairness, we believe
the proposed
legislation offers a better alternative to the current system
of petitioning Congress for special patent-extension
legislation.
It would put the issue in the hands of an independent expert,
whose decision could be appealed to the federal courts. This process
is
not only logical, but also inherently fair.
The fact that
misinformation exists about this legislation should
come as no surprise.
Generic manufacturers have a powerful financial
incentive to oppose this
approach. Generic companies profit by
making copies of the results of other
companies' research. They
contribute nothing to the vital research needed to
discover tomorrow's
breakthrough drugs.
History
demonstrates there is a fundamental connection between
fair
patent rights and the research that produces breakthrough
drugs and other products. It is impossible to have one
without
the other. By establishing a fair process outside of politics,
Congress has an opportunity to promote innovation that will fuel
more
discoveries and more medical advances for the benefit of
consumers
worldwide.
LOAD-DATE: November 17, 1999
