Patient, consumer groups push back on biologics exclusivity

A group of 28 patient, consumer, labor, insurance and other organizations urged the Trump administration to reconsider the proposed 10-year brand-name biologic exclusivity provision in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, the group -- called Fix the USMCA -- argued that the exclusivity rules would "exacerbate the problem of high prescription drug prices" by discouraging generic and biosimilar competition, and by preventing Congress from modifying the exclusivity period later...