Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — Senators agreed Monday to give high-tech biologic drugs a 12-year market monopoly before generic versions can compete. The vote in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee was a victory for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries but a defeat for the Obama administration and AARP. The Obama administration had pushed for a seven- year exclusivity period so that patients could get quicker access to cheaper versions of costly medicines used to treat ailments including cancer, Parkinson’s, diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.
