Health care reform took a turn for the better when members of key committees in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives recently recommended an approval pathway for biosimilars—products that attempt to be similar to an innovator biologic drug—while also preserving the hope for future medical treatments. Specifically, the committees agreed that to preserve medical innovation, biotech medicines should receive a reasonable 12 years of exclusive rights to their research data (also called “data exclusivity”) before a biosimilar may reference it for their own abbreviated approval. This period of time will act to preserve the research and development of breakthrough therapies for diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, and multiple sclerosis.
This is not simply a technical policy matter, but an important aspect of health care reform that is vital to the future development of new and better medicines. Amgen recognizes and supports a responsible, science-based regulatory pathway for biosimilars that ensures patient safety, follows sound science, demonstrates comparable efficacy — and as currently recognized by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee — provides fair incentives for continued development of treatments for serious diseases.
We believe that a reasonable approval pathway for biosimilars will have a positive impact on our local and national economies. Washington state is a leader in biotechnology, and a biosimilar policy that preserves incentives for innovation will help ensure that our state can continue to be a leader in breakthrough medical innovation. Amgen is the largest private biotech employer in the region, providing approximately 900 jobs. The workforce we employ is highly educated, passionate about our mission to help patients, and dedicated to enriching the communities in which we live and work. Amgen’s Seattle-area laboratories are the largest commercial biotech facilities in the Pacific Northwest, representing a more than $600 million investment in biotechnology infrastructure.
The recent Senate and House committee decisions are also positive news for patients suffering from many types of crippling and life-threatening conditions who depend on the scientific breakthroughs that can only come from continued biotechnology research. As we frame changes to our health care policies, we must take care to preserve the innovation in biotechnology that holds the promise for future treatments for these patients.
Congress must also be mindful of the patient safety issues that are also at the heart of the biosimilars debate. It is essential that a scientifically-sound process is in place at the FDA to approve drugs that are similar, but not identical, to existing biotechnology medicines. Biologics are large, complex molecules, much larger and more complex than chemical molecules found in pills. You might visualize
