Generics, Payers: Rx Measures In Trade Deal Thwart Efforts To Lower Prices

Generic drug makers, payers and others contend that the drug measures in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement are inconsistent with U.S. law and “will exacerbate the problem of high prescription drug prices.” In a Nov. 5 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, 28 groups call a 10-year brand-name biologic exclusivity provision in USMCA a barrier to generic and biosimilar competition that would limit patient access to affordable medicines “that have lower prices than their brand-name counterparts.” While current U.S. law offers...