> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.fdaweb.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Senators Seek FDA Fixes to Brand Companies Delaying Competition
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/senators-seek-fda-fixes-to-brand-companies-delaying-competition/
- Published: 2017-06-26T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T22:31:28.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, #legacy-id-D5139026

Barely a week after he called for [public input on the problem](https://www.fdaweb.com/fda-public-meeting-on-generic-drug-barriers/), a group of senators have urged FDA commissioner **Scott Gottlieb** to address prescription drug costs by curbing abuses by drug companies to delay competition. Senator **Dianne Feinstein** (D-CA) joined a bipartisan group of Senate Judiciary Committee members led by Senator **Amy Klobuchar** (D-MN) and wrote Gottlieb asking him to address abuses in the regulatory process that delay competition and increase prescription drug costs. The request aligns with objectives of legislation senators Feinstein, Klobuchar, **Chuck Grassley** (R-IA), **Patrick Leahy** (D-VT), **Dick Durbin** (D-IL), **Sheldon Whitehouse** (D-RI), **Mike Lee** (R-UT), and **Richard Blumenthal** (D-CT) introduced earlier this year, the *Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples (CREATES) Act.*

  
In their [letter](https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=3A11E1DD-D042-4820-A2F3-29899C1A9376&ref=fdaweb.com), the senators asked Gottlieb to detail the regulatory actions FDA can and cannot take to address strategies that prevent generics from obtaining samples needed for regulatory testing and abuses in the Risk Evaluation Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program. The letter also asked Gottlieb to determine whether FDA can approve a single REMS system for a generic product that meets the same, safety requirements as the branded company’s system “more readily” than it has in the past.