Drugmakers Game the Patent System and Reap Billions, FDA Says
- Gottlieb issues plan to boost biosimilar market, lower prices
- Agency will also work with FTC to stop brand-name ‘gaming’
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Efforts by drugmakers to thwart less-expensive rivals for pricey biologic medicines cost the U.S. health-care system billions of dollars last year, the Food and Drug Administration’s chief said in laying out a plan to end such practices.
The agency wants to bring greater attention to the market for the complex drugs, which are generally injected or infused. It plans to work with the Federal Trade Commission to stop “gaming tactics” like piling up patents to extend the commercial dominance of brand-name medicines, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a speech on Wednesday in Washington.