Bradley Cameron and Public Citizen on HR 1598 Alert

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

Public Citizen has a good press release about the 
very well funded effort to extent the patents on
Claritin and other drugs.  

http://www.citizen.org/congress/drugs/stopclaritin.htm

This is funded by Schering-Plough.  With Raul Cesan, the CEO of 
Schering-Plough now on the board of directors of the NYT,
will they cover the scandal?  Schering-Plough has actually
hired Tom Daschle's wife to lobby on this.    

See also the note by Bradley Cameron, who represents the 
Generics on this issue.  Jamie



Subject: HR 1598--Alert
   Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 18:19:08 -0400
   From: Bradley Cameron <brad@ngrc.com>
     To: James Love <love@cptech.org>


Jamie--can you pass this along to your network?  I think it's critical
to your fight.  Any effort would be greatly aprpeciated.   Thanks, Brad
There's another bill pending that, if passed, could be a big problem.
HR 1598 would extend the patents for Claritin (the
blockbuster allergy drug) and seven other drugs (including Eulexcyn for
prostate cancer, and Daypro and Relafen for arthritis).
Schering-Plough has pulled out all the stops to get the bill passed,
since it makes $2.3 billion annually on Claritin alone.
Schering argues that Claritin was held up in the FDA approval process,
so is owed the patent extension, which expires in
2002.  What the company does not say is that the Claritin patent was
extended for precisely this reason under the 1984
Hatch-Waxman Act, and it was extended again under the 1997 GATT
legislation.

Schering has hired former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker, Linda
Daschle, the Senate Minority Leader's wife, four
other former members of Congress, one law firm for every member of the
Senate Judiciary Committee, and a number of other
PR and law firms to lobby members of Congress.  Hearings are scheduled
in the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual
Property on July 1.  Some of our best allies--like Rep. Conyers (D-MI)
and Rep. McDermott (D-WA)--are on the bill as a
result of the most intense lobby effort I have ever witnessed.

Passage of HR 1598 will ABSOLUTELY serve as a precedent for further
efforts to extend patents on every profitable brand
drug presently under patent--that means every profitable AIDS drug,
patents for which start expiring in the next 2-5 years (the
patent on Claritin expires in 2002, so that tells you how far in advance
the companies are willing to fight for extensions).

WE NEED YOUR HELP.  Anyone willing and to help us stop HR 1598, email
me.  In return, I'll do every thing in my power
to bring the generic drug industry (which I represent) into the fight on
your side on the parallel import bills.  David Scondras and
Jamie Love can attest to our efforts to date on this front.

Please help!  Thanks,
Brad Cameron
202-966-0440




-- 
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
I can be reached at love@cptech.org, by telephone 202.387.8030,
by fax at 202.234.5176. CPT web page is http://www.cptech.org