A US government document shows that Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) spent $2.3 million on lobbyist activities in Washington in 2007.
Teva lobbied in support of legislation that would allow the FDA to approve generic versions of new biotechnology treatments. Generic pharmaceutical companies are authorized to market cheaper versions of relatively simpler drugs, but the FDA is not authorized to approve generic versions of biotech-developed drugs.
Teva supported a bill (H.R. 1038) known as the “Access to Life-Saving Medicine Act” introduced by Democratic US Representative from California Henry Waxman and others, including US presidential candidate New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton that would "establish a process through which the FDA will be able to approve lower cost copies of biotech drugs."
Waxman is a long time ally of the generic pharmaceutical industry, having introduced, along with US Senator Orrin Hatch, the "Hatch-Waxman Act", which in 1984 essentially paved the way for the generic pharmaceutical industry in the US.
Teva also lobbied for legislation that would have ended a tactic used by pharmaceutical companies in which they file appeals with the FDA at the last moment before a generic version of a drug is released, and essentially hold up competition by generics.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 20, 2008
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