Statement of the American Medical Association: Re: S.1552, 87th Congress Drug Industry Antitrust Act

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: I am Dr. Hugh H. Hussey, Jr., of Washington, D.C. I am appearing here today as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association. I am also the Dean of the School of Medicine of Georgetown University. With me are Dr. Ernest B. Howard, Assistant Executive Vice-President of the American Medical Association, C. Joseph Stetler, the Association's General Counsel, and Joseph Jerome, Ph.D., Assistant Secretary of the Council on Drugs. The American Medical Association, as the national association of the physicians of the United States, has a serious and long-standing interest in drugs and any legislation concerning them. We have not, however, taken any position on S.1552, as a whole, inasmuch as certain of the proposals in the bill, such as the Sherman Act and patent law amendments, are outside our area of competence. We will direct our remarks