<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""><a href="https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/478092-big-pharma-looks-to-stem-losses-after-trade-deal-defeat" class="">https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/478092-big-pharma-looks-to-stem-losses-after-trade-deal-defeat</a></span><br class=""></div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""><i class=""><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-style: normal; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""><b class="">Big Pharma looks to stem losses after trade deal defeat</b></span></p></i></span></div><div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="">By Peter Sullivan</span></div><div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="">01/14/2020</span></div><div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">The powerful pharmaceutical industry is trying to cope with a rare loss in the North American trade deal now moving through the Senate.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">Drug companies are protesting the elimination of a provision that would have given them 10 years of market exclusivity for an innovative type of drug called biologics. That measure was dropped from the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) at the behest of House Democrats, who warned it could have locked in higher drug prices.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">That’s left an industry already facing a wave of fury over drug prices isolated in their opposition to a deal being cheered by other business groups.</span></p><div style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""></div><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">For now, drugmakers are largely sidestepping a full-scale fight over an agreement that is primed for passage, and instead looking to prevent such losses in future trade deals.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">Sources familiar with the strategy say the industry is working to get senators on record in support of including the protections it lost in this deal in future trade agreements with other countries but that drug companies are also not trying to get GOP senators to vote against the USMCA, a likely impossible task.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">Instead, the industry, worried about the precedent this deal sets, is trying to stem its losses and build support for including the intellectual property protections in future trade deals with countries like China.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">Joseph Damond, executive vice president for international affairs at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, which represents biotech companies in Washington, said industry had been expecting House Democratic and White House negotiators to craft a compromise on the provision, but not that it would be stripped out entirely.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">“To have the provision eliminated entirely was just very disappointing and a real blow,” Damond said in an interview, arguing that small, innovative biotech companies would be hit hardest.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">He said it would be “very difficult” to try to get GOP senators to oppose the agreement over “one particular issue” but that the industry’s message has instead been that “this should not be viewed as a template” for future trade agreements.</span></p><div style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><div style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); padding: 16px 5px 10px; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0px; float: left; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" class=""><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0pt none;" class=""></div></div></div><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">Sens.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><a href="https://thehill.com/people/robert-menendez" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; display: inline-block;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">Bob Menendez</span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">(D-N.J.) and</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><a href="https://thehill.com/people/patrick-toomey" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; display: inline-block;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">Pat Toomey</span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">(R-Pa.) spoke out against the removal of the biologic protections at the Senate Finance Committee session on the trade agreement this month, and the Senate Health Committee session to review the deal on Wednesday provides another opportunity for lawmakers to go on record on the issue.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">Advocates for lower drug prices, meanwhile, are touting the removal of the provisions as a sign of a changing tide in Washington.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><font color="#2b2c30" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3" class="">“It is a clear and important sign of pharma’s declining influence in Washington and the industry knows it,” said Peter Maybarduk, a director at the progressive group Public Citizen.<br class=""></font></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">The trade deal fight was not the most threatening issue on the industry’s plate in recent months, as companies also fought sweeping measures to lower drug prices from House Democrats, the Senate and the Trump administration.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">Still, both sides of the fight over high drug prices wonder whether the loss is a sign of more sweeping changes to come as other legislation looms.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">“There’s conversations about, ‘Should we have framed it this way with the president?’ ” said a pharmaceutical lobbyist. The lobbyist added that the industry is still “trying to figure out how they could have done better.”</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">The industry said the longer market exclusivity period, which prevents cheaper competition from coming to market, was needed to allow companies to recoup the cost of their investments in innovative new medicines.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">Drug pricing advocates counter that the longer exclusivity period would have simply hindered efforts to lower drug prices, including posing an obstacle if the United States wanted to lower its current period of 12 years of protections.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">The pharmaceutical industry is also alone on the issue, as other business groups support the trade deal.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a statement praising the deal last month that did not mention the biologic provisions, though it later followed up the next day with a second statement noting its objections to those provisions’ removal. </span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">The trade agreement is also sailing through</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">Congress. The deal passed the House by a lopsided margin of 385-41 in December and is expected to receive a bipartisan vote in the Senate once the impeachment trial ends.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><font color="#2b2c30" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3" class=""><span style="line-height: 22px;" class="">Maybarduk, of Public Citizen, said he hoped House Democrats would follow up this action by giving more support than they have so far to a bill from Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) that would lower the biologic exclusivity period in the United States.<br class=""></span></font></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.4;" class="">That measure would face very long odds in the GOP-controlled Senate.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">“My hope is that we’re starting to see senators be more independent on pharma issues,” Sen.</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><a href="https://thehill.com/people/ron-wyden" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; display: inline-block;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">Ron Wyden</span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">(Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in an interview. But he noted that the lessons from the trade deal for the broader drug pricing debate can only go so far because “the coalitions for trade are different than they are on pharmaceuticals.”</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">He noted that stopping sweeping legislation to lower drug prices, such as a bill from Wyden and Senate Finance Committee Chairman</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><a href="https://thehill.com/people/chuck-grassley" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; display: inline-block;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">Chuck Grassley</span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">(R-Iowa), seems to be a higher priority for the industry.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">“They’ve spent a lot more money, for example, on fighting Sen. Grassley and I and other efforts at cost containment,” Wyden said.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">But some senators are not shedding too many tears for the pharmaceutical industry’s loss in this instance</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Graphik Web', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(43, 44, 48); line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">“The people with the biologics can take care of themselves,” said Sen.</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><a href="https://thehill.com/people/bill-cassidy" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; display: inline-block;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">Bill Cassidy</span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class=""> </span></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class="">(R-La.).</span></p><div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><font size="3" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;" class=""></span></font></div></div><br class=""><div class="">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; " class=""><div class="">Arthur Stamoulis</div><div class="">Citizens Trade Campaign</div><div class="">(202) 494-8826</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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