Gottlieb seeks more robust generic competition

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb skated past the Trump administration’s FY18 FDA budget request at a congressional appropriations hearing Thursday, focusing instead on new initiatives that are intended to stimulate generic drug competition. Rather than discuss President Trump’s requests to increase user fees by $1 billion and slash medical product safety funding -- proposals Congress has rejected -- Gottlieb used his time on Capitol Hill to announce that FDA is developing a “drug competition action plan.”

“Simply put, too many patients are priced out of the medicines they need,” Gottlieb said. Although FDA doesn't directly regulate drug prices, he said it can and should affect drug markets, especially by promoting generic competition...