BURR WEIGHS IN — Former Senate HELP Committee ranking member Richard Burr (R-N.C.) chatted with POLITICO’s Megan R. Wilson about Congress’ agenda for the coming months. Burr, who retired from Congress last year, is now at law and lobbying firm DLA Piper and serves as chair of the firm’s health policy strategic consulting practice. Does the VALID Act come back this year? It’s easy to answer, will there be a comeback? There has to be. I'm not sure I can tell you it happens this year because this year requires a Ouija board and a snowball to try to figure out what can happen and what will happen because those are two different things. How could this play out? Whether it's [laboratory-developed tests] or whether it’s [the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act], there are going to be opportunities. The January funding bill is too early; maybe the February funding bill might work out better. But all health care [policy] is going to ride on another vehicle. But anything pandemic-related has become so politically polarized — with some conservatives opposing any items with the word “pandemic” in it. How does that get resolved? There’s still some passion by members to get it done. And it’s more of a timing issue. If you look at January and February and say, ‘Could you have Covid, RSV and flu all hit at the same time and have a perfect storm and have hospitals inundated?’ … That all can change based upon people’s fear. Congress seems to always act when the fear factor goes up. There’s talk of potential discussions with Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) on drug shortages — something Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee bristled at as the PAHPA reauthorization bill came together. What do you see happening there? Never underestimate a retiring member and their need to get something that’s a signature as their last hurrah. FIRST IN RxP: BIPARTISAN GROUP TARGETS PATENT THICKETS — New legislation targeting so-called patent thickets is being introduced by a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the Senate and the House in an effort to boost competition in the prescription drug market. The bill — led by Sens. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) — would limit the number of patents that brand drugmakers can use when defending a legal challenge to one at once. That would prohibit pharmaceutical companies from using a group of patents protecting small changes to the underlying medicine as a way to defend a single product from generic competition.
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