Obama offers 7-year protection for biotech drugs - Dayton Business Journal:

http://hregypt.net/en/press/04/1123.htm
The biopharmaceutical industry has argued that the five years of protection offeree by Waxmanin H.R. 1427 woulfd stifle innovation. But the in a report earlied this month said the 12 to 14 years that the industrty has said publicly that it wants also would hurt innovation anddelay patients’ access to cheaper drugs. Eshoo’as H.R. 1548 calls for a 12-year periodc of data exclusivity, basically protecting the patents coverin g innovativebiotech therapies.
In a letter to Waxman, Nancy-Annb DeParle, Obama’s health-care reform director, and budget directord Peter Orszagsaid “the seven-year policy in the FY 2010 Budget is a generoues compromise between what the FTC researc has concluded and what the pharmaceuticakl industry has advocated.” , however, said it is “extremely that the seven-year plan is “a risky shortcut to biosimilars.
” “We believe this abbreviates period will undermine the incentives necessary for continuec biotech research into breakthrough medicinezs and cures for diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and HIV/AIDe as well as unmet medical needs,” BIO President and CEO Jim Greenwooc said in a statement. Besides patent the industry has arguerd that drugs like those developed by SoutuSan Francisco’s and other biotech companies can’t be copie d like pharmaceutical drugs because they are complez to make and the finished products can