Further, from my reading, the bill basically codifies what already happens in the small molecule drug arena. Given drug development times for small molecules, there is typically about 12 years exclusivity for any given new drug before a generic can come to market. Under the lax comparability standards described in this ammendment, biologics are easy to reverse engineer, and “bio-”similars” could thus be rapidly brought to market on the very expensive coat tails of the pioneer drug. Would this be allowed in any other technological field?

It seems to me that the issue that most offends Jane and Sherrod is the profit being made on a particular drug and the perception/prediction that pricing would keep the drugs out of patients’ hands. I agree that, under the current reimbursement system, this would be the case. However, that presupposition is in direct contradiction with their other assertions and legislative goals regarding health insurance.

If the reimbursement system is properly re-engineered, there’s no reason that pioneer biologics couldn’t be made more widely available. Under the latter conditions, it seems to me that the only remaining objection would be to the profits garnered for bringing breakthrough drugs to market. This is an entirely distinct argumeent and, IMO, intellectual honesty demands that the two be divorced.

The possibility that ROI for a given class of drugs might be dramatically limited, thereby reducing the incentive for innovation is dismissed out of hand here and elsewhere in the liberal blogosphere. But what if that’s true? Why would investors continue to subsidize the development of breakthrough drugs if only to serve as templates for knockoff Chinese or Indian imitators?

I see alot of knee jerk reactions from the left, where anything proposed by Pharma must be bad. To me that’s intellectual laziness and is disingenuous. Hell, even the most ardent left wingers are loath to full-throatedly criticize certain Pentagon expenditures to this extent, lest they be characterized as troop haters. Where is the comparable restraint regarding one of the last bastions of actual American exceptionalism, biomedical research and drug development?

l-i-q-u-i-f-a-c-t-i-o-n

Yup just like in Sf where all those houses just collapsed… anything built ot there will sink after a while just like foster city which is below sea level these days…. swim baby Swim…

l-i-q-u-i-f-a-c-t-i-o-n

More brackish marshland would be good for the bay’s ecology, I thought that was the plan in DiFi’s dealing with Cargill a few years back. Now it’s to be developed? More bait and switch to profit developers.

All the hope that Obama and a democratic majority would lead to true change was just a charade. Elephants and donkeys work for the same corporate sponsored team, they just fight over who has the ball and use that (vote for our party) to keep us common folk apart.

We will NEVER have a representational form of government as it currently is. We will NEVER elect enough ‘good people’ to get a majority of common sense Americans who care about the actual country and it’s people as the system currently is.

Have you all heard of turnitin.com?

High schools have students turn in their papers electronically to have it compared to stuff already published to guard against plagiarism. I suggested to someone who worked for the company that they ought to start selling it to congress staffers, esp. when GOP claims “no changes” to FISA law and other crap like that.

Did you get to see the “Run Zombies” road sign in person? Great prank!