The fiscal 2012 budget introduced by the President of the United States includes two proposals that would increase the availability of generic drugs by ceasing anti-competitive agreements among drug makers and hastening availability of generic biologics, while retaining the appropriate incentives for research and development for the innovation of breakthrough products.
The high cost of drugs prescribed has been a burden for the citizens of the country. The plans have been put forward to stimulate an approach to more affordable pharmaceuticals. It will not only lead to cost savings for consumers but health programs across the Federal Government.
The drug industry globally has an approximate value of $890 billion. As a part of 2012 budget proposal, the duration of the time period where the drug makers could exclusively market their brand name biologic has been decreased to seven years from twelve years. It is estimated that this cut in the time period may cause hard drift to the big drug companies like Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co. Inc. that can see at least $1 billion as revenue from a single mega-hit medicine.
The proposal makes provision for grant of additional powers to Federal Trade Commission to work effectively. A special emphasis has also been led to end up the controversial “pay-for-delay” deals by authorizing Federal Trade Commission to bar those accords.
The administration plans to take every possible step to reduce the amount of deficit by helping squeeze out some savings. Both the proposals put forward, share a common objective to get cheaper, generic medicines to the US market, together saving nearly $11 billion over a decade. The “pay-for-delay” plan expects to save $80 million commencing in 2015 and altogether could save $2.3 billion from 2012 to 2021.
Its 7-year proposal "strikes a balance between promoting affordable access to medication while at the same time encouraging innovation to develop needed therapies," the White House said in budget documents.
The President’s Budget includes $79.9 billion to support Health and human Services, HHS’s mission. On the health side, $32 billion, an increase of $740 million over the 2010 level has been funded for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health. The budget supports an implementation of Affordable Care Act, ACA, in order to reduce long term budget deficit by approximately $230 billion over the next decade and about $1 trillion over the second decade, based on the most recent Congressional Budget Office analysis.
