UPDATE 1-House panel votes to ban "pay to delay" drug deals

* Bill to ban pay for delay passes on voice vote

* Senate considering companion bill

WASHINGTON, July 31 (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives committee voted on Friday to ban deals in which drug companies pay generic firms to delay bringing out a cheaper, copycat version of a drug.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, by a voice vote, approved a bill to prohibit branded drug companies from compensating generic drug firms to delay entry.

Rep. Bobby Rush, the Illinois Democrat who introduced the amendment, said it would curb "these eyebrow raising settlements."

The Senate is considering a similar bill. While a member of the U.S. Senate, President Barack Obama co-sponsored an earlier version of the legislation.

The FTC, which says the deals cost Americans $3.5 billion per year, has challenged them in court but with mixed success.

The first known "pay for delay" was in 1994 when Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY.N) paid $290 million to Schein Pharmaceutical to delay the sale of a generic version of Bristol's anxiety drug Buspar.

In Brussels, EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said this month that she was determined to oppose such settlements, which she said had pushed up European consumers' bills by 20 percent between 2000 and 2007. (Reporting by Susan Heavey, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)