Generic Biologicals ?

Sound crazy? Sound too good to be true? Maybe. But Ramesh Ponnuru at National Review Online has written about a new bill with bipartisan support that would increase competition for biologicals.

Hemophilia is easily one of the most expensive chronic care conditions to treat. Think of the difference between a 'dispense as written' name brand drug for say $140 (even with insurance) and a $5 co-pay for the generic. Now imagine those market forces at play with factor products. I'm sure even 'generic' factor products would still be expensive to produce but any price break would be welcome when worrying about lifetime caps.

Ponnuru states "The principal argument against the bill is that replicating biologics is much harder than producing generic versions of other medicines, and that generic biologics could therefore be unsafe." Safety is, of course, of prime concern. Ponnuru continues "But there is no reason to think that the FDA would approve unsafe generic biologics."

Generic clotting factor products may never be viable. But at least with passage of a bill like this they could be possible.

Read the whole thing here.