Copyright 2002 Newsday, Inc.  

Newsday (New York, NY)
October 30, 2002 Wednesday QUEENS EDITION
SECTION: VIEWPOINTS, Pg. A28

LENGTH: 378 words

HEADLINE: EDITORIAL;
Good Medicine;
The House can cut the cost of prescription drugs by approving two bills the Senate passed.

BODY:
With the cost of prescription drugs soaring and Congress nowhere near agreement on Medicare drug coverage, two bills languishing in the House could give consumers at least some relief by promoting competition to rein in prices.

One would speed cheaper, generic drugs to market. The other would allow wholesalers to bring medicines shipped into Canada, where prices are lower, back into the United States, where prices are stratospheric. The Senate has passed both bills. Republican House leaders have refused to bring either up for a vote. Americans struggling with high drug prices deserve better.

President George W. Bush has now signaled his support for a plan to speed generics to market. That's progress, but Bush came late to the party. He waited until Congress had left town to campaign for re-election before signing on. And what he has offered is a watered-down version of the preferable Senate bill. The House should go Bush one better and pass a strong generics bill, and approve reimportation too.

The Senate generics bill would close loopholes that allow drug companies to extend their right to exclusively market patented drugs using frivolous lawsuits or sweetheart deals with generic-drug makers . The Congressional Budget Office says the Senate bill would save consumers $60 billion over 10 years.

High prices for patented drugs - 60 percent more, on average, than their generic equivalents - reflect the cost of developing innovative products. Patents should be protected, but not the strategies that some companies use to extend them indefinitely.

Bush would use tougher Food and Drug Administration rules to patch over the loopholes. His regulatory approach is less likely to be effective than a law that discourages the use of underhanded deals and endless litigation to delay the entry of cheaper generics into the market. The White House says its plan would save consumers $3 billion a year, about half as much as the tougher legislative approach.

The elderly need comprehensive Medicare prescription drug coverage. Neither of these bills will change that. But they would tap free market forces to help control drug prices, and that's worth doing, whether it's Medicare or individual consumers who are paying the bills.

LOAD-DATE: October 30, 2002