Collins cosponsors bipartisan bill in House to fight drug product hopping

U.S. Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) this week unveiled a bipartisan bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to help tackle product hopping, a monopolistic practice used by drug companies to unfairly control more of the nation’s pharmaceutical market.

“Innovation and competition in the pharmaceutical market are key to lowering prescription drug costs,” said Rep. Collins, ranking member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. “Anticompetitive tactics like product hopping are hurting American families, who are struggling to pay for expensive pharmaceuticals.”

Rep. Collins on Nov. 18 signed on as an original cosponsor of the Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Through Promoting Competition Act of 2019, H.R. 5133, with bill sponsor U.S. Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), which would amend the Federal Trade Commission Act to prohibit anticompetitive behavior by drug product manufacturers, according to the bill’s text.

Rep. Cicilline also serves on the House Judiciary Committee and is chairman of its Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law.

Rep. Collins called the measure “an example of what our committee can achieve when we work together on a bipartisan basis.”

If enacted, H.R. 5133 would help more generic options enter the market faster and decrease pharmaceutical costs for American consumers, according to a statement released by members of the House Judiciary Committee, by authorizing the Federal Trade Commission to prosecute pharmaceutical manufacturers that create non-substantive changes to prescriptions aimed at extending their exclusive holds over parts of the market.

“The Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Through Promoting Competition Act of 2019 would disincentivize pharmaceutical companies from abusing our patent system in order to maintain control over the pharmaceutical market,” added Rep. Collins.

H.R. 5133 has been referred for consideration to the House Judiciary Committee.