Maine lawmakers are advancing LD 1280, a bill that seeks to reduce patients’ health care bills by speeding up the introduction of low-cost generic drugs.

The bill has a noble goal. But it is terribly written. It would enable intellectual property theft: drug companies would be allowed to steal and profit from their competitors’ trade secrets. That would discourage research investments — potentially leading to layoffs for Maine’s drug-sector workers. Worse, the bill would undermine federal drug safety standards that protect patients.

The FDA requires generic manufacturers to prove their products are therapeutically equivalent to brand-name medicines. To do so, generic firms must obtain samples of brand-name drugs, to test them head-to-head.

Some Maine lawmakers suspect that brand-name firms aren’t handing over samples in a timely fashion. This delay, they say, slows down the testing and approval process. That suppresses competition and allows brand-name manufacturers to keep selling their products at high prices, even after their patents have expired.

So a group of state legislators has introduced LD 1280 to prevent foot-dragging and require brand-name firms to provide drug samples “at fair market price and without any restriction that delays access to an eligible product developer.”

The bill is well on its way to becoming law. It just passed out of the Labor, Commerce and Economic Development Committee by a wide margin.

Yet the legislation remains deeply flawed. For starters, brand-name firms would have to sell samples to any person or company that “seeks to develop an application for the approval of a drug.”

That’s an incredibly broad definition. Brand-name manufacturers could demand samples from rivals in order to create competing products that don’t technically violate patent protections, but still mooch off the creators’ research.

This de facto intellectual property theft would prevent manufacturers from recouping their investments on previous research. That would discourage firms from making new research investments, since no company wants to spend $2.6 billion — the average cost of bringing a new drug to market — only to see a rival freeload off its efforts.

The ensuing cutback in research would mean layoffs for workers and fewer new medicines for patients.

LD 1280 also guts patient safety protections.

Some medicines cause such severe side effects that the FDA requires manufacturers to follow special safety protocols when distributing the drugs. These rules typically govern how the drugs are dispensed.

For instance, if a drug can cause liver damage, providers have to monitor patients’ liver function during treatment. If a drug causes birth defects, doctors must confirm that patients aren’t pregnant. Doctors who want to prescribe Tysabri, a powerful multiple sclerosis treatment, must first obtain special certification and follow specific procedures to avoid damaging patients’ nervous systems.

Before handing over samples of high-risk drugs, brand-name firms negotiate with generic manufacturers to ensure the potent medicines will be tested on patients in accordance with these special safety standards.

LD 1280 would treat such negotiations as “restriction(s) that delay access” and prohibit them. Brand-name firms would be forced to hand over samples to generic manufacturers that may not follow needed safety precautions. Patients would be put at risk.

It’s admirable that Maine lawmakers are trying to lower patients’ drug bills. But LD 1280 is the wrong way to do it. It would discourage research and endanger patients.

Peter Pitts, a former FDA associate commissioner, is president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest in New York City. Follow him on Twitter @PeterPitts.

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