Pair of ex-HHS coun­sels crit­i­cize bill to 'u­pend' 180-day ex­clu­siv­i­ty for first gener­ic drugs

Three years ago, a pair of bi­par­ti­san con­gress­men in­tro­duced leg­is­la­tion called the “Bring­ing Low-cost Op­tions and Com­pe­ti­tion while Keep­ing In­cen­tives for New Gener­ics,” or BLOCK­ING Act — claim­ing to try and keep drug prices down by in­creas­ing com­pe­ti­tion among gener­ic drug mak­ers.

And while trade or­ga­ni­za­tions like the gener­ic-fo­cused As­so­ci­a­tion for Ac­ces­si­ble Med­i­cines sent a let­ter to then-Pres­i­dent Trump ex­press­ing their op­po­si­tion to that act, two high-rank­ing ex-gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials are speak­ing out against it — and ex­plain­ing why it might not help.

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