In March 2010, as part of Affordable Care Act, Congress passed a well-conceived and critical legislative bill, the Biologic Pricing and Competition Innovation Act of 2009 (BPCIA)i. Despite its intentions, BPCIA has been instituted so that it complicates prescribing while increasing health care costs and reducing competition, rather than resulting in the anticipated benefits.
Rick Pazdur, MD, the newly appointed director for the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA, has been described as “greyhound thin” as a result of his dedication to cycling and lifting weights in the gym each day and, for a long time, a vegetarian diet. I first met him when he was the director of the Office of Oncology Drug Products (ODP) within CDER, in 2009.
