If you've been following the Blue America PAC at all, you may already be aware that we've decided that we won't be endorsing any candidates for the House in 2010 unless they are genuinely enthusiastic about passing John Larson's Fair Elections Now Act ( HR 1826 ). We're not asking for some unenforceable pledge; we want nothing less than heartfelt enthusiasm. Right now Larson has 117 co-sponsors from...
As Marcy says, looks like PhRMA went into a bit of a panic after my dustup with Anna Eshoo . They decided to hand 42 members of Congress scripts to insert into the Congressional Record. The NYTimes article says there was one script for Republicans, and another for Democrats. Just so nobody had to tempt fate and rely on original thinking. Evidently they thought the GOP script was more appropriate to...
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Democrats Applauding Democrats Who Voted NO on "GangsterCare"
Looks like Shuler is a hero to some Democrats for his vote.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWlEcteZU1Q
On October 29, Jane wrote a scathing post about what Anna Eshoo's provision to give biosimilars a route to approval would do, focusing on the 12 years--and probably more--of monopoly it would grant. The following day--October 30--Eshoo responded.
Anna Eshoo (D-PhRMA) may be the author of the language granting drug companies endless monopolies on biologic drugs, but she couldn’t have done it without the help of her good friend Jane Harman. A new letter from the Marcy Winograd campaign says: The latest health insurance reform bill includes an amendment, supported by Jane Harman, [...]
Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Thursday, November 5. 1. Jon Walker reports on what he correctly calls a "cruel sick joke" - the Republican "health care reform " alternative ." Among other things, "It does not ban insurance companies from refusing to cover pre-existing conditions. It guts state health insurance regulations , and lets insurance...
I had the best time last week for Halloween. I went to the Senate on behalf of POP with the medical students from AMSA who first alerted me to the problems in Anna Eshoo’s (D-PhRMA) bill, which would grant monopolies on expensive, lifesaving biologic drugs and keep them from ever becoming generics. Eshoo’s bill [...]
Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for Monday, November 2. 1. First, thanks to Eric Pusey of Minnesota Progressive Project for letting us all know what's going on in the Minnesota Congressional delegation regarding health reform, the public option, etc. Thanks to Eric. Also, I invite other progressive state bloggers to send me (at lowell@raisingkaine.com) their "Voices from...
I can't tell you how happy I am to hear that Rep. Eshoo did not intend to put an evergreening period in her bill. Because not only would it apply to important breast cancer drugs, but also to drugs yet to be developed for everything from Alzheimers to an AIDS vaccine. Thank you, Rep. Eshoo, for your commitment to having a bill that does not allow for "evergreening." Now the question becomes...
While I was searching for Henry Waxman’s comments about Anna Eshoo’s PhRMA boondoggle which will leave cancer patients in financial ruin just to pay for lifesaving biologic drugs, I came across a bizarre claim from her cosponsor Jay Inslee. He seems to believe that these companies need to be granted a monopoly on these [...]
In her response to my article on her biologics bill, Anna Eshoo vehemently claims it doesn’t allow “evergreening,” which would allow slight tweaks in drug formulas to grant drug companies endless monopolies and keep these lifesaving drugs from ever becoming generics: There is no ‘evergreening’ clause in my legislation. There is in fact an ‘anti-evergreening’...
Marcy Winograd has an excellent diary up at Daily Kos (please read/recommend if you're so inclined!) regarding the pharmaceutical industry's stranglehold on patents for "biologics" - cutting-edge, life-saving drugs. The new health care bill includes an amendment by Representatives Anna Eshoo and Joe Barton which will grant 12 years of patent protection for these biologics. Marcy writes: While...
As part of the nationwide “Treat, Not Trick” effort yesterday, AMSA medical students Connie Chen and Rebecca Mitchell organized a visit to Anna Eshoo’s office in Palo Alto. Eshoo’s biologics legislation is a huge gift to PhRMA that will keep important new cancer drugs from ever becoming affordable generics. Their passionate advocacy on [...]
Rep. Ed Markey has a post up on HuffPo today that calls for the online public to support his bill, HR 3458, The Internet Freedom Preservation Act", which he and Rep. Anna Eshoo proposed in July. He notes that it...
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