INFO - Biologics: what price a miracle?

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Biologics: What Price a Miracle?

AARP

By Sheree Crute

November & December 2009

Excerpt:

" Biologics are proteins taken from living things, " says Hazlet,

Pharm.D., a professor at the University of Washington. That means

they're naturally more expensive to develop and manufacture than

chemical drugs (see " How They're Made " ). But there is also no

competition for biologics in the pharmaceutical marketplace, in part

because the FDA does not have a process in place for approving generic

biologics (or biosimilars). AARP and a host of other organizations

lobbied Congress intensely during the health care debate, calling for

legislation that would allow the FDA to approve such a process.

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/biologics_what_price_a_miracle.html

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