Prognosis
Senate Targets Hoarding of Drug Patents to Deter Competition
- Bill takes aim at patent thickets like AbbVie’s Humira
- Senators readying package of measures to decrease drug costs
This article is for subscribers only.
U.S. senators want to stop brand-name drugmakers from using an arsenal of patents to thwart generic competition, a tactic used by makers of some of the world’s most expensive and best-selling medicines.
Senators John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, and Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, proposed legislation on Thursday that would give the Federal Trade Commission the help it needs to go after pharmaceutical companies that use so-called patent thickets. Drugmakers sometimes secure more than 100 patents over a product’s lifetime, which can deter generic firms from the costly and time-consuming task of challenging them in court.