This topic may have fallen off the radar screen amid the presidential election and the recession, but the rising cost of biologics continues to be a problem. And the Federal Trade Commission wants to shape the discussion before Congress and the FDA proceed with a framework that will permit drugmakers to create and market lower-cost versions.

So, at 8:30 am EST today, the FTC will conduct a workshop organized into five panels to discuss the following issues: the price and market share effect of entry by both biosimilar and biogeneric drugs, the likely competitive effects of reference product regulatory exclusivity, biotechnology patent issues, the likely competitive effects of follow-on biologic regulatory incentives, and the patent resolution process.

The FTC, you may recall, wrote a letter in May to the House Energy & Commerce Committee, saying Congress “should limit companies’ ability to game…exclusivities at the expense of consumers by (1) disconnecting the FDA approval process for generic biologics from patent litigation, and (2) ensuring there is no opportunity for brands effectively to lengthen their exclusivities through insignificant changes to a branded biologic product or through excessive procedural delays.”

Panelists will include luminaries from the FDA, BIO, insurers, generic and brand-name drugmakers, academia and patent lawyers. This is the agenda, and these are the public comments filed with the FDA by various companies and groups over the past several weeks. The roundtable, by the way, will be webcast (go here to tune in).