Congress hasn't made any progress on drug pricing legislation, but that hasn't stopped the government from acting. Now, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has unveiled yet another move to step up competition in the generics business.

After previously announcing several strategies to bring copycat drugs to market more quickly, Gottlieb now says the agency will prioritize applications for generics that could launch immediately after a first-to-market copy loses its 180-day exclusivity.

Though the first generic tends to be cheaper than the brand, the real pricing relief comes after multiple copies launch. Under generic approval rules, the first company to file for FDA approval gets a 180-day lock on the market, and that means the pricing battle waits till that period expires. Gottlieb wants to make sure the competition doesn't wait further, by lining up other copies for approval.

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The news comes after the FDA earlier this year unveiled its Drug Competition Action Plan. Back in May, Gottlieb said the FDA would publish and regularly update a list of medications that are off patent and have no competition, work to improve generic review times and seek to “curtail gaming” of regulations by the industry that allow companies to extend monopolies.

All of those moves, Gottlieb has said, could help to tackle high medicine prices. And the effort is showing: so far this year, the FDA has approved a record number of generic drugs, according to Regulatory Focus, topping a previous record set last year.

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