Week Ahead - Hearings
- Monday, March 26: Full Committee hearing on "Safe and Affordable Biotech Drugs – The Need for a Generic Pathway"
10:00 am, in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building
This hearing will look at the high cost of biotech medicines and how to provide a pathway to allow the FDA to approve safe and affordable generic versions of biotech drugs. Witnesses include representatives of the Food & Drug Administration, biotech pharmaceutical manufacturers, scientists, and consumer groups.
Witnesses:
Panel I.
- Dr. Janet Woodcock, M.D., FDA
Panel II.
- Ganesh Venkataraman, Ph.D., Research Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc
- Geoffrey Allan, Ph.D., Insmed Incorporated (formerly with FDA’s Center for Biologics)
- Bill Schwieterman, M.D., Tekgenics Corporation
- Theresa Lee Gerrard, Ph.D., TLG Consulting, Inc. (formerly with Amgen and FDA’s Center for Biologics)
- Inger Mollerup, Novo Nordisk A/S
Panel III.
- Nelda Barnett , AARP
- Scott D. McKibbin , State of Illinois
- Mary Nathan , National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD
- Yvonne Brown , National Multiple Sclerosis Society
- Jonah Houts , Express Scripts, Inc.
- Priya Mathur , California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS)
- Henry Grabowski, Ph.D., Duke University
- Tuesday, March 27: Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia business meeting
2:00 pm, in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building
- Wednesday, March 28: Full Committee hearing on "Allegations of Misconduct at the General Services Administration"
10:00 am, in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building
Back in January, Waxman requested documents from Lurita Doan, chief of the U.S. General Services Administration. She is under investigation for a $20,000 no-bid contract given to a personal friend, Edie Fraser. Since that time additional information (see Waxman's March 6 letter PDF) indicates that Ms. Fraser actually used her connections to convince several Senators to promote Doan to the position of GSA administrator and then expected payment from the agency for her services. From an email dated 09/20/06, "Lurita, I will do anything for you and will do for the rest of my life... But I have spent so much time at GSA from the report planning to these sessions with ZERO $$. How do we solve".
Ms. Doan will also be questioned about her involvement in the awarding of a contract to Sun Microsystems. Initially a GSA contract officer refused to award the contract after an audit by the Inspector General determined that Sun was overcharging the federal government compared with similar services offered to its corporate customers. Doan had the officer replaced and the replacement subsequently awarded the contract which will cost federal taxpayers millions more than necessary.
Ms. Doan will testify before the committee. Other witnesses have not been listed yet.
- Thursday, March 29: Full Committee business meeting
9:30 am, in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building
- Thursday, March 29: Subcommittee on Domestic Policy hearing on "’Build It and They Will Come’: Do Taxpayer-financed Sports Stadiums, Convention Centers and Hotels deliver as promised for America’s Cities?"
10:30 am, in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building
|