Wonder Why a Pill costs $10 Bucks? AstraZeneca spent $770,000 lobbying in 1Q

WASHINGTON -

Drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC spent $770,000 in the first quarter lobbying the U.S. federal government on pharmaceutical issues.

The London-based company lobbied on bills that would allow generic drug companies to sell cheaper copies of biotech drugs. Unlike traditional chemical-based drugs, biotech drugs have never faced generic competition because the Food and Drug Administration lacks authority to approve the cheaper copies. An effort to give FDA that power stalled last year when lawmakers couldn't agree on how many years of patent protection to give biotech firms.More