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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 28, 1995)
Frulay • April 28,1995 /ay top '5 toners B. 105 ookieComp- r Advent^ ^ersii Gifts Etc. y Nails The Battalion • Page 7 ^J^ASHINC 1 ON Prescription drug patent to limit generic competition os Cafe :o irqer □ Americans will have to pay an additional $6 billion for prescription medicines. WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans may wind up paying an additional $6 billion for their medicines because of an over sight in the new world trade Breement that extends the Btents of brand-name drugs, a Inator asserted Thursday. ■ Pharmaceutical giants are battling consumer groups and generic competitors before the Food and Drug Administration to determine whether they’ll get the windfall. ■ At issue is whether GATT, the General Agreement on Tar iffs and Trade, will keep low- cost, generic drugs from compet ing with more than 100 brand- name versions as quickly as generic companies and con- [sumers had anticipated. ■ “What’s going to happen is we’re seeing American con sumers paying ... higher drug prices for a much longer period of time,” said Sen. David Pryor, D-Ark., who, with five other senators, urged the FDA on Thursday to side with the generic industry. When GATT goes into effect in June, all new patents will last 20 years. Current U.S. law says patents last just 17 years. GATT also allows the life of some current patents to be ex- "What's going to happen is we're seeing American con sumers paying ... higher drug prices for a much longer period of time." Sen. David Pryor, D -Ark. tended to 20 years. In medicine, that means 109 brand-name drugs could each get up to three more years of sales without generic competi tion. For example, the patent on the world’s top-selling drug, the ulcer medication Zantac, was set to expire in December, but manufacturer Glaxo Inc. says GATT now protects Zantac until July 1997. A University of Minnesota study says Americans will pay $6 billion more for these drugs during the next 20 years than they would have paid had generics been allowed for sale under the pre-GATT schedule. Zantac, for instance, costs $180 for two months of treatment, while a generic version would cost $90, giv ing Glaxo a $1 bil lion windfall, the study said. But generic drug makers are crying foul. They’re spend ing millions to get FDA approval of low-cost versions of brand-name drugs so those generics are ready to sell the day the compe tition’s patent expires. And GATT does say any com pany that invested “substantial ly” in anticipation of a pre- GATT patent expiration could go ahead with the new product, as long as the original patent- holder is paid “equitable remu neration” for the deal. But GATT also cannot super sede any existing law — and federal generic drug law clearly states that no generic can be sold until the pioneer drug’s patent expires. Glaxo has petitioned the FDA to enforce that law and block generics until the GATT-extend- ed patents expire. Consumer groups and generic firms are pressuring the agency to rule against Glaxo. Thursday’s letter to the FDA said the controversy was caused by congressional oversight — that somehow legislators didn’t realize the two laws would clash. “In no way did Congress intend GATT to serve as an obstacle” to generic drugs, Fb-yor wrote, also urging the FDA to oppose Glaxo. In addition to FVyor, the letter was signed by Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., Hank Brown, R-Colo., Ben Nighthorse Camp bell, R-Colo., Paul Simon, D-Ill., and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. esearchers find primitive tools in Africa Theaters 'eaners laundry i/elers ler Stride 0 □ The double and single pointed blades that have been discov ered are thought to have been carved from the bones of the large mammals of the time. I WASHINGTON (AP) — Discovery in Zaire of 80,000-year-old barbed points and blades is evidence that humans first learned to make sophisticated tools in Africa, not in Europe as many experts be lieve, a new study says. ■ The African tools, made from bone, come from what may have been a Stone Age fish ing camp where families of early humans speared spawning giant catfish and feasted on the banks of a lake, says Alison S. Brooks, a George Washington University archaeologist. Brooks said the implements show tool making skills that, until now, have been edited only to Europeans who lived thou- nds of years later. “The finding shows that early humans in rica invented sophisticated toolmaking long before their European counterparts,” said Brooks. “Barbed points like these ap peared in Europe only 14,000 years ago.” f Brooks and her husband, John E. Yellen of the National Science Foundation, are co authors of a study in Friday’s academic journal Science. I The old tools were found during years of excavation at seven sites in Semliki River valley on the border between Zaire and Uganda in central Africa. Included are double-pointed blades with carved barbs and single points with ridges that could have been used for attachment to spear shafts. All of the bone tools were proba bly carved from the ribs of large mammals that lived in the area, the researchers say. Yellen said the researchers were so con cerned about the accuracy of dating the dis- "The finding shows that early humans in Africa invented so phisticated toolmaking long be fore their European counter parts." — Alison Brooks, archaeologist coveries that the tools were subjected to four different age-dating techniques. The ages ranged from 89,000 to 173,000 years old. Steve Kuhn, an anthropologist at the University of Arizona and a specialist in an cient tools, said the Africa implements came from “much earlier than any of us ex pected. It makes us rethink some ideas” about how early technology developed. “The finding shows that changes in tech nology may not have been as gradual as we thought,” said Kuhn. “It upsets a lot of sim ple models about technology progress.” However, the fossil record has many gaps, said Kuhn. He said it is not clear that the tools developed in Europe descended from the design ideas of the early African craftsmen, or if the Europeans invented them independently. Brooks said the finding is important be cause it shows “the old idea that there were humans in Africa who looked modern, but who didn’t behave like modern people until they got to Europe ... is not correct.” Fragments of skeletons from what are con sidered to be anatomically modem humans, called Homo sapien sapien, have been found in several places in Africa and dated at more than 100,000 years old. Younger evidence of modern humans has been found in Europe and Asia. There also has been evidence of more primitive humanlike creatures found on the three continents. It is widely accepted now that modern humans physically developed first in Africa. What is uncertain is how and when these presumed ancestors of all humans migrated to the rest of the world. “We are a long way from being able to answer about the timing for the movement out of Africa,” said Brooks. The area where the tools were found sug gests that the Stone Age humans camped there only temporarily, probably during the annual spawn of the catfish. And those primitive fish were huge, she said. *2® t&e Stitc&entf, * Counted Cross Stitch * Needlepoint * Crochet * Embroidery * Mats and Frames Aggie Designs Mon. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. 3805 S. 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Graham Rd., College Station, TX 77845 • <& .5G <& Sponsored by: Off Campus Aggies A Security Deposit -A If you're moving out, be sure to give your manager a 30 DAY Move-out NOTIC Help notify bther Aggies by filing a complaint or compliment about your living situation this past year in the Resident Reaction File located in our office. Sample form letters available in the Office of Student Life Programs #112 Koldus 845-1 741 M-Th 8am-8pm F 8am-5pm CALLING! EISENHOWER LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT STUDENTS There will be an end-of-the-year pizza feast for all Eisenhower students - past and present. College Station Conference Center 1300 George Bush Drive Room 101 May 1, 1995 • 6:00 - 7:30 PM GRAND SLAM SPORTS CARDS % Complete Line of Sports and Non-Sports Cards T? All Sports, All Years 7 Sets, Singles, Supplies 7 Thousands of Commons to Complete Sets 7? 1995 Baseball arriving weekly, LIMITED PRODUCTION T Open 7 Days A Week Inside Manor East Mall *725 Villa Maria Rd. 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