NEW YORK -- The Generic Pharmaceutical Association spent about $508,000 in the second quarter as it lobbied the federal government on health care reform and issues related to patents on prescription drugs.

The group, called GPhA, represents companies that make low-cost versions of pharmaceuticals. Their products usually go on sale after the patents protecting the main ingredient of a brand-name drug have expired. They are not identical to the branded version but are similar, and the price is significantly less.

GPhA spent 10 percent more than it did in the second quarter of 2010. Its lobbying concerns included the government's fiscal 2011 and 2012 budgets and the implementation of the March 2010 health care overhaul law. That law includes a pathway for the marketing approval of generic versions of biotech drugs. Other lobbying interests included prescription drug safety and counterfeiting, drug shortages, regulatory fees, and drug importation.

Those practices have drawn attention from regulators.

GPhA also said it lobbied on Medicaid Rebates, drug reimbursement and payments to manufacturers, and funding for the Food and Drug Administration and the Office of Generic Drugs. The group lobbied Congress, the White House Office, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration, the Congressional Budget Office, the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the Office of Management and Budget.

The group spent about $463,000 in the second quarter of 2010. It disclosed its activity in a form filed July 19 with the House clerk's office

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