WASHINGTON DC (June 18, 2021) – The Maine legislature this week passed a bill, LD 1117, despite warnings that the legislation is unconstitutional. LD 1117, a bill targeting generic prescription medicines, is essentially identical to a Maryland law that was enacted in 2017. To ensure access to generic medicines for patients nationwide, the Association for Accessible Medicines sued the state of Maryland, and after two years of complicated and expensive litigation, a federal appellate court struck the law down as unconstitutional and the state of Maryland was ordered to pay nearly a half million dollars of AAM’s legal bills in addition to its own significant attorneys' fees.
Governor Mills has the opportunity to reject this misguided legislation, considered even more onerous than the Maryland model it copies, and avoid spending Maine taxpayer dollars defending a clearly unconstitutional bill.
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Rachel Schwartz
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About AAM
AAM is driven by the belief that access to safe, quality, effective medicine has a tremendous impact on a person’s life and the world around them. Generic and biosimilar medicines improve people’s lives, improving society and the economy in turn. AAM represents the manufacturers and distributors of finished generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars, manufacturers and distributors of bulk pharmaceutical chemicals, and suppliers of other goods and services to the generic industry. Generic pharmaceuticals are 90 percent of prescriptions dispensed in the U.S. but only 20 percent of total drug spending.
About the Biosimilars Council
The Biosimilars Council, a division of the Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM), works to ensure a positive environment for patient access to biosimilar medicines. The Biosimilars Council is a leading source for information about the safety and efficacy of more affordable alternatives to costly brand biologic medicines. Areas of focus include public and health expert education, strategic partnerships, government affairs, legal affairs and regulatory policy. More information is available at www.biosimilarscouncil.org.