US Senate passes War Bill but drops House provision on pay-to-delay drug deals, which FTC says are growing in number

The US Senate has approved a $60 billion measure to fund the troop buildup in Afghanistan after refusing to include $10 billion in state aid sought by the House to prevent an estimated 140,000 teacher layoffs, and also dropped the 'Preserve Access to Affordable Generics Act,' which is intended to curb pharmaceutical patent settlement agreements - so-called 'pay-for-delay' deals between research-based pharmaceutical companies and generic drugmakers, which the House of Representatives passed earlier by a vote of 239 to 182 (The Pharma Letter July 5).

The Senate had initially approved its own version of the bill in May, and the House now has to decide whether to take up the Senate version of the legislation or seek to make further changes.

Meantime, in testimony yesterday before the US House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy, the Federal Trade Commission detailed its work to promote competition and benefit consumers. According to the testimony delivered by FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, a top competition priority at the Commission is to stop pay-for-delay agreements between branded and generic drug makers. The FTC estimates that these sweetheart deals cost consumers $3.5 billion a year.