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GPhA Statement on the Obama Administration's Proposed Fiscal Budget for the Food and Drug Administration

Arlington, Va. February 1, 2010-The Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA) today issued the following statement from Kathleen Jaeger, President and CEO of GPhA, on the release of the Obama administration's proposed fiscal 2011 budget for the Food and Drug Administration:

"We applaud the Obama administration's commitment to ensuring that consumers have access to safe, effective and affordable generic medicines. The proposed budget request of $51.5 million for the FDA's Office of Generic Drugs (OGD), a $10 million increase over last year's budget request, represents a meaningful step towards enhancing FDA's Generic Drugs Program."

"We will continue to encourage Congress to strengthen this investment in the OGD. A meaningful enhancement in the OGD budget of $20 million will go along way to fortify OGD resources and avoid further consumer delays in gaining access to affordable generics. Generics also save our health care system money, a critical factor in these difficult economic times. GPhA's landmark generic savings study, conducted by IMS Health, found that for every two percent increase in generic utilization, the nation's Medicaid program could save an additional $1 billion dollars each year. Increasing consumer access to affordable medicine reaps tremendous dividends to private and public providers as well as taxpayers."

"The proposed budget also contains a proposed user fee program for the approval of generic medicines. The generic pharmaceutical industry remains open to a generic user fee program and looks forward to working with the administration to develop a meaningful program with measurable results."

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