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    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_340"
                     title="Week 30: Obama Lashes Back at GOP Days After State of the Union"
                     score="0.008"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Reform/tb/18223?impressionId=1265791796979"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON  --  President Barack Obama chided Republicans on Friday for portraying healthcare reform as a &quot;Bolshevik plot&quot; in which the president is &quot;doing all kinds of crazy stuff that&apos;s going to destroy America.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The accusation came when Obama addressed House Republicans at their annual policy retreat, where he urged the GOP to back away from hyperbolic rhetoric on healthcare.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;All I&apos;m saying is we&apos;ve got to close the gap a little bit between the rhetoric and the reality,&quot; he said during a question-and-answer session following his speech.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;I&apos;m not suggesting that we&apos;re going to agree on everything, whether it&apos;s on healthcare or energy or what have you, but if the way these issues are being presented by the Republicans is that this is some wild-eyed plot to impose huge government in every aspect of our lives, what happens is you guys then don&apos;t have a lot of room to negotiate with me.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;You&apos;ve given yourselves very little room to work in a bipartisan fashion because what you&apos;ve been telling your constituents is, &apos;This guy&apos;s doing all kinds of crazy stuff that&apos;s going to destroy America.&apos;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But he appreciates opposition, Obama told the crowd.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;I&apos;m a big believer not just in the loyalty of opposition but in its necessity,&quot; Obama said. &quot;It&apos;s only through the process of disagreement and debate that bad ideas get tossed out and good ideas get refined and made better.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He told the Republicans that his healthcare reform plan incorporates a number of GOP ideas, including allowing people to purchase insurance across state lines.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) presented Obama with a binder of their party&apos;s solutions to the nation&apos;s problems.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;I&apos;ve read your legislation,&quot; Obama said. &quot;I take a look at this stuff. And the good ideas we take.&quot; But, he said, &quot;It can&apos;t be all or nothing, one way or the other.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Following the address and the question-and-answer period, House Republicans held a press conference, in which they thanked the president for agreeing to hold a conversation with them on their turf.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Let me say, House Republican leaders are grateful for the president of the United States&apos; willingness to come in a freewheeling and open environment and have a frank and honest conversation about the future of this country, said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But, as Boehner pointed out, willingness to engage does not equate to bi-partisan lawmaking.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;The president has always been willing to work a little more closely with us, but, really, it&apos;s never translated into real action on the Hill,&quot; he told reporters.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;State of the Union &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The GOP retreat came just two days after Obama addressed the nation in his first &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/18182&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/18182&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;&apos;Do&amp;#8200;Not&amp;#8200;Walk&amp;#8200;Away&amp;#8200;from&amp;#8200;Reform,&apos;&amp;#8200;Obama&amp;#8200;Urges&amp;#8200;Congress&quot;&gt;State of the Union address.&lt;/a&gt; The address was short on healthcare specifics and lacked a blueprint for jump starting the stalled healthcare reform legislation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Here&apos;s what I ask of Congress, though: Do not walk away from reform,&quot; the president said Wednesday night.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Not now. Not when we are so close. Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people,&quot; he said, to a standing ovation from both Democrats and Republicans.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Jan. 19 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Reform/18053&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Reform/18053&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;GOP&amp;#8200;Scores&amp;#8200;Win&amp;#8200;in&amp;#8200;Massachusetts&amp;#8200;Senate&amp;#8200;Race&quot;&gt;election&lt;/a&gt; of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate significantly altered the trajectory of healthcare reform. Now Democrats are regrouping, working on a strategy to pass reform legislation without a 60-vote majority in the Senate, and denying that there is any timeline for melding the measures passed by the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/17679&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/17679&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;Senate&amp;#8200;Passes&amp;#8200;Healthcare&amp;#8200;Reform&quot;&gt;Senate&lt;/a&gt; and the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Reform/16847&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Reform/16847&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;House&amp;#8200;Passes&amp;#8200;Healthcare&amp;#8200;Reform&quot;&gt;House&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Budget Due&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Although healthcare reform may be in flux, the president is looking ahead, and will release on Monday his proposed 2011 budget, in which he will outline proposed allocations for the Department of Health and Human Services, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the National Institutes of Health.&lt;/p&gt;

    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_129"
                     title="Lawmakers Push Ban on Generic Sweetheart Deals"
                     score="-0.005"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/tb/17947?impressionId=1265791796979"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON  --  Some House lawmakers are pushing to ensure that final healthcare reform legislation would make it illegal for brand-name drug manufacturers to pay makers of generic drugs to keep their cheaper medications off the market.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Several members of the House of Representatives held a press conference Wednesday to highlight so-called &quot;pay-for-delay&quot; settlements, which occur when a brand-name drugmaker pays a generic company to delay introducing a generic drug as part of a patent settlement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The lawmakers pointed to a new report from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that found such agreements are on the rise and can delay generic drugs from hitting the market for 17 months, on average.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;An amendment to ban the deals was included in the healthcare reform legislation passed by the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Reform/16847&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Reform/16847&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;House&amp;#8200;Passes&amp;#8200;Healthcare&amp;#8200;Reform&quot;&gt;House&lt;/a&gt;, but it not included in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/17679&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Washington-Watch/17679&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;Senate&amp;#8200;Passes&amp;#8200;Healthcare&amp;#8200;Reform&quot;&gt;Senate&lt;/a&gt; bill. Senate and House leaders are working to combine the two bills, but it&apos;s generally expected that the final version will most closely resemble the Senate bill. That means the pay-to-delay provision could be lost.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The pay-to-delay agreements have been on the rise since 2005, according to the FTC report. From 1999 through 2004, it said, FTC enforcement deterred companies from paying others to delay introducing a competing product, and in 2003, an appellate court ruled that pay-for-delay agreements were illegal.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, since 2005, a few appellate courts have &quot;misapplied the antitrust law to uphold these agreements,&quot; according to the FTC. Those rulings paved the way for three pay-for-delay deals in 2005. There were 14 such deals in both 2006 and 2007 and 16 in 2008. Last year, there were 19 pay-for-delay deals.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Such settlements are a &quot;win-win&quot; for both drug companies: The brand-name company gets to continue to sell its product free of competition for a while longer, while the generic company gets paid without having to produce anything, said Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Ohio).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;What branded and generic companies have figured out is that it is more profitable for them to share monopoly profits than it is for them to compete,&quot; Kilroy and five Democratic House colleagues wrote in a Jan. 12 letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calf.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the letter, the lawmakers urged the leaders to include a provision to root out the pay-for-delay deals as both chambers work to combine the bills.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Such deals cause consumers to have to wait, on average, 17 months longer for cheaper generic drugs to hit the market, the FTC report found. In some cases, generic drugs are as much as 90% cheaper than their brand-name counterparts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Making pay-to-delay deals illegal would save consumers $3.5 billion annually and reduce the federal budget by nearly $2 billion over 10 years, the lawmakers said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The brand-name and generic drug industries oppose the legislation and say banning the deals would go too far.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In a statement from the Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPHA), the group said the FTC and the Department of Justice already review each patent settlement to ensure that &quot;pro-consumer settlements aren&apos;t blocked&quot; and that the agreements aren&apos;t anticompetitive.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;The generic industry believes that Congress can successfully address anticompetitive patent litigation settlements without limiting consumer access to generics in the process,&quot; said Kathleen Jaeger, GPHA president and CEO.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;According to the group, without an option to settle patent challenge cases, generic companies are forced to take the challenges all the way to court, which could further delay the company&apos;s ability to introduce a generic drug.&lt;/p&gt;

    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20090101_1_7"
                     title="Black Box Warnings Called Too Vague for Compliance"
                     score="-0.006"
                     href="