37 Signatories Call on Congress to Pass CREATES Act

37 Signatories Call on Congress
to Pass CREATES Act

37 signatories today called on Congress to pass the Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples (CREATES) Act.  This coalition represents a broad-based and diverse cross-section of stakeholders – including providers and payers, physicians and consumers, businesses and unions – all of whom have come together in strong support of this important legislation.

The letter reads, in part:

For too long, brand-name pharmaceutical manufacturers have exploited patient safety tools in order to stifle generic competition and attendant lower prescription drug prices. . . . This “gaming” by brand-name pharmaceutical companies denies generic manufacturers access to the samples that they require in order to conduct necessary equivalence testing to ensure the quality, efficacy, and safety of a generic drug.  As a result of this pattern of anticompetitive practices, brand-name manufacturers are able to stifle generic competition, inflating prescription drug prices by artificially extending their monopoly pricing power far beyond the exclusivity period intended by Congress.

The CREATES Act is a bipartisan, bicameral bill that would promote competition, reduce prices, and, according to the CBO, result in a $3.3 billion reduction in the federal deficit .  FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition Markus  Meier recently testified favorably on the bill at a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on  Regulatory Reform, Commercial and  Antitrust  Law.

Click here to view the letters to House and Senate leadership, and a complete list of signatories is below.

AARP
AFL-CIO
American College of Physicians
Anthem
Alliance of Community Health Plans
American Hospital Association
American Society of Health System Pharmacists
America’s Health Insurance Plans
Ascension
Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
Blue Shield of California
Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing
Center for Medicare Advocacy
Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs
Coalition to Reduce Spending
CVS Health
Doctors for America
Families USA
Federation of American Hospitals
Freedom Works
Greater New York Hospital Association
Healthcare Supply Chain Association
Kaiser Permanente
Knowledge Ecology International
National Center for Health Research
National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
National Physicians Alliance
Patients for Affordable Drugs
Pharmaceutical Care Management Association
Prime Therapeutics
Public Citizen
Social Security Works
Treatment Action Group
Vizient
Walmart