Collins Co-Sponsors Bill to End Prescription Product Hopping

9th District U.S. Representative Doug Collins, along with several other lawmakers have introduced the Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Through Promoting Competition Act of 2019 (H.R. 5133).

If passed the legislation would help fight product hopping, which pharmaceutical companies use to unfairly control more of the pharmaceutical market.

Product hopping is an anti-competitive practice in which a manufacturer unfairly encourages consumers to shift from one drug that is losing market exclusivity to another, similar drug that will have market exclusivity for a greater amount of time.

The bill would also help more generic options enter the market faster and decrease pharmaceutical costs for all Americans.

Collins said pharmaceutical companies often make frivolous changes to a drug in order to maintain their exclusive hold over the market for that prescription.

This tactic delays generic options from becoming available to consumers and remaining accessible once they reach the market.

The Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Through Promoting Competition Act of 2019 would give the Federal Trade Commission the authority to prosecute pharmaceutical manufacturers that create non-substantive changes to prescriptions simply to extend their exclusive holds over parts of the pharmaceutical market.

Collins said Tuesday innovation and competition in the pharmaceutical market are key to lowering prescription drug costs.

He called the bi-partisan legislation an example of what can be achieved when lawmakers work together on a bipartisan basis.

Other supporters of the bill include Wisconsin Republican Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law; New York Democrate Jerrold Nadler Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee; and Rhode Island Democrate David Cicilline, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law.