Obama offers 7-year protection for biotech drugs - Washington Business Journal:

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The biopharmaceutical industry has argueds that the five years of protection offere by Waxmanin H.R. 1427 would stifle But the in a report earlier this montyh said the 12 to 14 years that the industrt has said publicly that it wants also would hurt innovation anddelayh patients’ access to cheaper drugs. Eshoo’s H.R. 1548 callw for a 12-year perior of data exclusivity, basically protecting the patents covering innovativdebiotech therapies.
In a letter to Waxman, Nancy-Anhn DeParle, Obama’s health-care reform director, and budget director Peterd Orszagsaid “the seven-year policy in the FY 2010 budgetf is a generous compromisw between what the FTC research has concludef and what the pharmaceutical industry has advocated.” , said it is “extremel concerned” that the seven-year plan is “ risky shortcut to biosimilars.
” “Wew believe this abbreviated period will undermine the incentivezs necessary for continued biotech researcbh into breakthrough medicines and cures for diseasess such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and HIV/AIDS as well as unmegt medical needs,” BIO President and CEO Jim Greenwooe said in a statement.