GPhA responds to Baucus bill

ARLINGTON, Va. Following the proposal of new healthcare legislation, an organization representing the generic pharmaceutical industry cited concerns over the bill's intentions.

“While we understand that the Finance Committee negotiated in good faith to find costs savings in their healthcare reform bill, we are concerned that the proposals to increase generic drug Medicaid rebates will actually have just the opposite intent. Increasing rebates on generic medicines could have the unintended consequence of also increasing the costs of generics for consumers and the government,” Kathleen Jaeger, president and CEO of GPhA, said in an official statement. 

Jaeger also suggested that Congress should work to increase generic utilization, specifically, by 2% in the government's Medicaid program, which GPhA said will save the nation $1 billion annually.

“We will continue to work with the Committee and the full Senate and House to fully explain the true unintended consequences of these proposals. The goal of healthcare reform should be to do no harm to consumers, and, unfortunately, these proposals will ultimately leave consumers holding the bag in terms of increased costs,” Jaeger said.