American Home's Patent Deal Stalls US Health Bill

A row over a drug patent extension granted to American Home Products' antiarthritic drug Lodine (etodolac) last week resulted in the Senate passage of health insurance reforms being stalled. The normal patent expiry date for Lodine was 1995 and this was extended in 1992 to 1997, but Democrats have demanded that a further two-year patent extension through February 1999 should be deleted from the health bill before it is given final approval by the Senate. Democrats' complaints resulted in the provision being dropped from the legislation.

According to a report from Reuters, Democrat Senator Edward Kennedy, the author of the bill, said that the "sweetheart deal" for the drugmaker was slipped into the health bill last on August 1 after Democrats has signed the agreement on health insurance reforms. He added that the issue would have to be resolved before the health care bill could be passed and sent to the White House. The House passed the bill overwhelmingly on August 1.

Sen Kennedy argued that "every citizen who uses this arthritis drug will pay more," and he estimated that if generics were permitted on the market the cost would fall by 30%-50%.