# The PRICED Act: Making Biologic Drugs Available Sooner

This bill would speed up when cheaper generic versions of expensive biologic drugs can hit the market. Right now, when a pharmaceutical company develops a brand-name biologic drug—these are complex medications made from living cells, like many cancer treatments and biologics for arthritis—they get 12 years of exclusive rights. During those 12 years, no competitor can make a cheaper copycat version, even if it's chemically identical. The PRICED Act would cut that exclusive period down to 5 years, meaning generic alternatives could start being produced much sooner.

The practical effect is that patients and insurance companies could see significantly lower drug costs years earlier than they currently do. If you or someone you know takes an expensive biologic medication, this could mean the difference between being able to afford your treatment or not. For example, a biologic drug that costs $10,000 per dose might drop to a fraction of that price once generics become available. By shortening the exclusivity window from 12 to 5 years, patients wouldn't have to wait as long for those price breaks. Insurance companies would also save money, which could translate to lower premiums for everyone.

The trade-off is that pharmaceutical companies would have less time to recoup the billions they spend developing these drugs before facing generic competition. Companies argue that this could reduce their incentive to invest in new drug development. However, supporters of the bill contend that 5 years is still enough time to recover research costs and make a profit, especially since these drugs are already extremely expensive. The bill only applies to new biologic drugs approved after it becomes law, so it wouldn't retroactively change the timeline for drugs already on the market.

PRICED Act

Schakowsky, Janice D.

Price Relief, Innovation, and Competition for Essential Drugs Act or the PRICED Act This bill allows biosimilars to be marketed five years after the reference brand-name biological product is licensed. Currently, brand-name biological products are provided a 12-year marketing-exclusivity period. This shortened marketing-exclusivity period applies only to biological products licensed by the Food and Drug Administration after enactment of this bill.