There was some talk that the White House deal with big PhRMa was on the rocks, but you wouldn’t know it from the Senate’s health care bill. They took the Senate Finance Committee language virtually intact, a Senate leadership aide confirmed last night. This is in contrast to the House bill, which made the pharmaceutical industry much more responsible for reductions to their bottom line, extracting bigger discounts for prescription drugs.

The biotech industry must like what they’re seeing as well. As Jane Hamsher noted today, the Senate bill includes the same language as what was in the House with respect to follow-on biologics. It would maintain exclusivity for up to 12 years, and has an “evergreening” clause that could prevent generic versions from ever coming to market. This is not surprising, considering that the same language passed in both the Finance and HELP Committees in the Senate.

Curiously, the CBO does score a benefit from the Senate creating “an abbreviated approval pathway for follow-on biologics,” or generic versions, saying that their availability would reduce federal spending by $7 billion over 10 years.

Senators like Byron Dorgan and Sherrod Brown will still provide amendments on the floor of the Senate, with measures like allowing the safe importation of cheaper drugs from abroad, and changing the rule on follow-on biologics. Of course, PhRMa would fight this, and they’ve committed to fighting the final bill if the House provisions remain intact.

Hovering in the background is the possibility that PhRMA, which has promoted the healthcare campaign with advertising all year, could turn against the initiative.

Last week, drug maker AstraZeneca’s chief executive, David Brennan, warned that if provisions in the House bill stayed in the final legislation, his company would oppose the healthcare campaign.

It’s important to note that Genentech, the company which planted talking points in the hands of 42 legislators in the House, is actually not part of PhRMa, but a separate trade organization called BIO, or the Biotechnology Industry Organization. This smaller lobby was still effective in ensuring their individual provision made it into the bill.

UPDATE: Manufacturers of generic drugs have begun lobbying Congress to change the biologics provision.