Press Release

Congressmen Ami Bera (CA-07) and Scott Peters (CA-52) praised the Food and Drug Administration’s recent decision to begin accelerating applications for generic drugs.

Bera and Peters sent a letter to the FDA last month urging the agency to prioritize generic drug applications to stop irresponsible price-gouging like in the case of Turing Pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli.

“I’m glad to see the FDA taking action to keep other irresponsible actors from charging exorbitant prices for drugs,” Bera said. “They are profiting off the scarcity of medications many people need and as a doctor I find this especially troubling. By speeding up the application process, more drugs can reach the market, ultimately lowering prices and ensuring patients can get the medications they need.”

“I applaud this common sense step from the FDA to streamline the generic drug approval process and provide consumers with more affordable options,” Peters said. “Access to generic drugs is especially important to the long-term and critically ill who would otherwise have nowhere else to turn when companies like Turing and Valeant choose to drive up prices.”

Read Bera & Peters’s letter here.

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