Patent Abuse Blocked Competition From More Affordable Alternatives For Periods
Ranging From Seven Months To More Than One Year
DOSE OF REALITY: STUDY FINDS BIG PHARMA’S PATENT THICKETS ON JUST FOUR BRAND
NAME DRUGS COST MORE THAN $3.5 BILLION IN TWO YEARS
Patent Abuse Blocked Competition From More Affordable Alternatives For Periods
Ranging From Seven Months To More Than One Year
In case you missed it, a study
<[link removed]>
recently published in JAMA Health Forum found lost competition due to Big
Pharma’s patent thickets on just four widely prescribed brand name drugs cost
patients, taxpayers and the U.S. health care system more than $3.5 billion in
excess spending over two years.
The analysis included a review of delayed generic competition to imatinib
(Gleevec), glatiramer (Copaxone), celecoxib (Celebrex) and bimatoprost
(Lumigan). These brand name products all first began facing competition from
more affordable alternatives between 2014 and 2018.
“The study found that extended market exclusivity periods ranged from seven
months for celecoxib to 13 months for glatiramer, significantly delaying
generic entry and driving up costs,” according to asummary
<[link removed]>
published in The American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC). “Over the two years
following generic competition, the absence of these extensions would have
reduced US drug spending by an estimated $3.5 billion—including $1.9 billion
(95% CI, $1.3–$2.5 billion) in commercial insurance and $1.6 billion (95% CI,
$1.1–$2.1 billion) in Medicare Part D.”
Big Pharma has a long history of price-gouging American patients through
tactics designed to game the U.S. patent system and block competition from more
affordable alternatives — enabling pharmaceutical manufacturers to maintain
monopolies over their biggest money-makers. Big Pharma companies often file
many, even dozens or hundreds, of patents on a single medication, a practice
known as patent thicketing, to extend exclusivity and block competition from
more affordable options for months, years or even decades.
A January 2023 report
<[link removed]>
from Matrix Global Advisors found Big Pharma’s patent thickets on just five
brand name drugs, including AbbVie’s autoimmune drug Humira and oncology drug
Imbruvica, Regeneron’s ophthalmology drug Eylea, Amgen’s autoimmune drug Enbrel
and Bristol Myers Squibb’s oncology drug Opdivo, cost patients, taxpayers and
the U.S. health care system more than $16 billion in a single year.
Market-based solutions to crack down on Big Pharma’s egregious patent abuse
have a demonstrated track record of strong bipartisan support and should be
swiftly passed by Congress to boost competition and help lower prescription
drug prices for patients.
In April, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary advanced
<[link removed]>
several such bipartisan solutions that would foster greater prescription drug
competition, projected to produce billions of dollars in savings by the
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), including The Affordable
Prescriptions for Patients Act (S. 1041) that would crack down on Big Pharma’s
patent thickets and was unanimously passed by the U.S. Senate during the last
Congress.
Read the full study in JAMA Health Forum HERE
<[link removed]>
and the summary in AJMCHERE
<[link removed]>
.
Read more about Big Pharma’s patent abuse HERE
<[link removed]>
.
Learn more about market-based solutions to hold Big Pharma accountable and
lower drug pricesHERE <[link removed]>.
###
Copyright © 2019 Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing
Our address is 1341 G St NW, #1100, Washington, DC xxxxxx
This email was sent to
[email protected]. To unsubscribe please click
here.
<[link removed]>
