QDIS Blog

There has been lots of press recently about how the new Democratically controlled congress could impact the drug and biotech industry. Many of those I’ve read have a negative outlook and appear to me to focus on the negative without talking about what the possibility of these coming fruition. Here’s just one example:

newsobserver.com | Drug companies going on defense

Although the Democrats have a narrow majority, they do not have enough votes to override a presidential veto. I think we will see many more vetoes in the next two year and many of these will likely be concerned with the prescription drug and biotech industries.

Here are just a few of the issues I think Congress will attempt to deal with.

• Biogenerics
• Vaccine manufacturers protection from liability
• Add the ability for the government to negotiate pricing for medicare drugs
• Importing of Canadian drugs
• Drug safety in general including
• Food safety

All of these are complicated issues and SHOULD involve folks on both sides talking about what they can do to make it better for the majority of Americans. However, I am fearful that it will turn into the usual finger pointing and trying to protect turf and profits without regard for what is best for the majority.

For a decent article on the biogenerics issues check out this article in the LA Times.

Generic biotech drugs backed - Los Angeles Times

Technorati Tags: congress, drug cost, drug price, drug safety, food safety

Email Ed Vawter

Bookmark it with: | del.icio.us | Digg it | Furl | Simpy | Spurl | My Yahoo! |