US Senator Tina Smith is renewing her campaign to make it easier to bring lower cost generic drugs to market. 
The Expanding Access to Low Cost Generic Drugs Act is a bill that Smith, a Democrat, created with Republican Senator Mike Braun of Indiana aimed at ending the practice of “parking.”
Smith said the way it works is a name brand big drug company has market exclusivity for a number of years, which she believes is a fair and equitable situation. However, after the exclusivity period is up, the large drug companies pay generic companies not to bring their generic drugs to market.
“What’s happening is the name brand drug company says to the first generic drug company that wants to get in, ‘Hey, I’ll promise not to sue you if you promise to just park that application that you have to bring your drug to market.’ And sometimes that goes on for years, and it’s completely unfair.”
Senator Smith said the practice has been in place for more than twenty years, and it is so widespread that it applies to any drug or any type of medicine. She said the anti-competitive practice hurts consumers and called the situation “ridiculous.”
Smith’s bill will change the incentive structure for generic companies and encourage them to rush their products to market and give them 180-day market exclusivity under certain circumstances, thereby stopping the bottleneck of generic drugs that are waiting to be made available.
Generic drugs, she said, are an excellent way to drive down the cost of prescription drugs. They can have the same formulation, the same effectiveness and the same safety as a name brand drug but can also be 80% less expensive.
The Senator has been working on this bill for more than five years, and said it has solid bi-partisan support. It has been rolled into a larger bill to lower prescription drug costs, and is set for a vote in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee next week. The bill has been close before, and in fact was very close to getting to President Biden’s desk last summer. She is hopeful that this is the year it becomes law.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with US Senator Tina Smith can be heard here
Board decides to table transportation fee for ‘23-’24
As the finishing touches were put on the Northfield School District budget for the 2023-2024 school year earlier this week, the School Board made a somewhat 
surprising decision to keep the transportation budget where it is, and not ask parts of the district to pay a fee for their child to be transported to school.
Northfield Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann said last year, the transportation budget was identified as something that might be reduced. Hillmann said the district worked very closely with the Benjamin Bus Company to try to find ways to bring the district’s transportation costs down, looking for ways to make bus routes more efficient. However, Hillmann said, the Benjamin Bus Company is already a very efficient partner for the school district, and there simply is not a lot of fat to trim.
“For several months we worked really hard with Benjamin Bus, looking at every route, looking at details of the service with Benjamin Buss being a true community partner and trying to reduce those costs. It turns out that we are already incredibly efficient. The ways that other districts are starting to make some reductions to transportation are things we’ve been doing for 15 years or so.”
The School Board, Hillmann said, has also decided to table the idea of charging a fee for transportation to those who live within two miles of the school that their kids attend. The idea was brought up too late in the year to be able to do the necessary research, he said, and the amount of the fee that would be charged to families was not something that the board is comfortable with.
Hillmann did say that families will be asked to opt into transportation next year. In years past, those who rode the bus were rolled into the next year as well. However, this summer, in an attempt to get a more precise count, families that use the bus will be asked to identify themselves.
Garden Bite radio program ends, internet presence to continue
Today ends an era at KYMN radio. Teri Knight, who has been a beloved voice on this station in one role or another for 31 years, has chosen to retire her daily 
Teri began her broadcast career at KYMN in 1992, before moving on to Metro Traffic Control in the Twin Cities. While working there, she was approached by the Minnesota News Network about doing a half-hour gardening show. While the initial plan didn’t work out, she and MNN did agree on a daily two-minute segment that became Garden Bite. Over the last 16 years, Teri has offered gardening advice and information five days a week, 52 weeks out of the year.
Gardening is of course a passion for her. After leaving the News Director position here at KYMN in 2020, she became the Content Manager and Lead Writer for Gertens Garden Center, requiring her to commute about 50 miles one way every day. And putting together Garden Bite every day requires much more time than the 2 minutes it takes to air. Finding a daily sponsor can be a time demanding thing in-and-of itself. She has simply found it all to be more work than she has time for, so she’s saying goodbye.
But the end of her radio show does not mean this is the end of Garden Bite. Teri said she enjoys talking about gardening and offering advice too much to completely stop.
“I can’t help but keep pushing out information, because I love it. It’s joyful to me. So, I’m going to keep up my website. It’s just not going to be every single day; it will be as inspiration hits me. And I will remain on social media. Facebook is one of the best ways to contact me.”
She also said she has been working on a pair of books for many years. It is her intent to finish at least one of them and see that it is published sometime next year. Until then gardeners and gardening enthusiasts can keep up with Teri’s work at gardenbite.com.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Teri Knight can be heard here
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
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