Leavitt, Michael

In the near future, government policies may be less supportive of the pharmaceutical industry than in the past. In the Bush administration, Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt and FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach opposed federal efforts to negotiate lower prices for Medicare prescription drugs and to allow reimportation of prescription drugs at lower prices. In the Obama administration, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, and FDA chief deputy Joshua Sharfstein will likely change these policies. New laws and policies may do more to favor consumers. 

Committee on Government Reform Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, 2005. Letter to Honorable Michael O. Leavitt, Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services. http //reform.house.gov/CJDPHR/News/ DocumentSingle.aspx DocumentID=32260 (accessed August 25, 2005). 

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