Market Exclusivity Raise?Not This Year

The US Senate Appropriations Committee's Labor, Health and HumanServices and Education subcommittee has heard proposals for a possible 10-year extension of marketing exclusivity for certain drugs, in exchange for drugmakers giving money to the National Institutes of Health, but says such a proposal is unlikely to be enacted this year.

The plan, being considered for inclusion in the Labor and Health and Human Resources spending bill, is opposed by health and consumer groups and the generic industry. Panel chairman Arlen Specter said lawmakers may want to study the idea of raising more NIH funds from drugmakers, but the idea is not ripe for inclusion in this year's spending bill.

Reuters notes that the plan would give any drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the last five years another five years' market exclusivity in exchange for the company paying 3% of the money it makes from the drug to the NIH, which sponsors much of the basic research drug companies build on. No-one has claimed sponsorship of the proposal.