Think that biosimilar legislation will go nowhere this year? Think again. The potential for biosimilars to lower Medicare and Medicaid drug spending could spark support for a follow-on biologics bill this year, if lowered expenditures could offset higher spending elsewhere, FDA Legislative Watch reports.

Under rules that the House applies to pending legislation, any new spending under a bill must be matched by a cut elsewhere or by a tax increase, the newsletter notes. But legislators eyeing new projects at FDA or NIH, for example, could “look to a bill like this and have a five-year savings that matches the five-year spending,” David Schmickel of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee told an industry conference. “That’s motivation for a lot of members to get these things done.”

Any proposal that might decrease spending “is big news in Congress,” Lisa Layman, a former Senate staffer who now lobbies for the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, told the crowd. “There are a lot of people for whom the savings are important - legislators who are struggling with the deficit and federal health programs, as well as patients.”

One bill was introduced last month that would create a so-called pathway for FDA approval while offering brand-name companies 12 years of exclusivity, plus an extra two years for a medically significant innovation. The BIO trade group was effusive in its support; the generic trade group called it a “step backwards.”