Biotech medicines---proteins made by modifying the DNA of bacteria, yeast or mammal cells and infused into sick patients---are the fastest growing category of health spending. Sales reached $40 billion in 2006, when reports indicated there were more than 400 biotech products being synthesized to treat cancer, AIDS, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and a hundred other diseases. The manufacture of biotechs is more complex and costly than conventional medicine, and the cost to patients can run as high as $25,000-50,000 a year. Some members of Congress have introduced legislation that would give consumers access to lower-cost copies; one would authorize the FDA to approve safe, lower-cost versions of biotechnology drugs without the full range of tests normally required for new products.

• describe who the stakeholders are who will be affected by such legislation.

• Create arguments for and against the legislation