In case you missed it, a study 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.
September 5, 2025
TOPLINE
In case you missed it, a study
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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.
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.
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
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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 more HERE
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QUOTES OF THE WEEK
“Senator Durbin and I have a bipartisan bill that requires price disclosures
on TV ads. Price transparency is important in drug advertisement. I know that
President Trump, Vice President Vance, and [Department of Health and Human
Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy] are all supportive of this effort.”
U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
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“Keytruda has been on the market since 2014. It pulled in nearly $18 billion
last year in the United States alone. It costs patients up to $175,000 a year,
draining Medicare of billions and forcing families into crushing debt or to
forgo life-saving care.”
U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV)
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DATA POINTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
$5.7 Billion
The Medicare spending on GLP-1s in 2022, a massive increase from $57 million
in 2018, according to areport
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JAMA Network Open.
TWEETS OF THE WEEK
@realtahiramin <[link removed]>: “A
new study in @JAMA_current by Dongzhe Hong, @SeanTu2, and Reed F. Beall looks
at the cost of extended market exclusivities due to patent term extensions and
patent gaming.
@AccessibleMeds <[link removed]>:
“Last year, generic medicines comprised 90 percent of all prescriptions filled,
but only 12 percent of prescription spending. In sharp contrast, brand drugs
supported patients less often— making up only 10 percent of prescriptions
filled but adding up to 88 percent of the total drug spend. This means that in
just one year, Americans spent $98 billion on prescription generic medicines
and a whopping $700 billion on brand drugs.”
ROAD TO RECOVERY
Law360: A Change In Big Pharma Response To FTC Delisting Warnings
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The Federal Trade Commission continues to be concerned about improper patent
listings in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Orange Book, their
deterrence of generic entry, and their consequent impact on prescription drug
prices. In response, the FTC has identified allegedly improperly listed patents
in three waves. First, in November 2023, the FTC sent notices to pharmaceutical
companies regarding hundreds of entries on the Orange Book, which involved 62
unique patents held by 10 firms.
Association for Accessible Medicines: 2025 U.S. Generic & Biosimilar Medicines
Savings Report
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AAM’s annual savings report, in partnership with the IQVIA Institute, reveals
the use of Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved generic and biosimilar
medicines created $467 billion in savings in 2024 for patients and the U.S.
healthcare system—and $3.4 trillion in savings the last ten years. Savings from
biosimilar medicines alone increased to $20.2 billion in 2024 and $56.2 billion
since the first biosimilar entry, a decade ago in 2015.
PHARMA’S POOR PROGNOSIS
STAT News: Gilead Wants State AIDS Drug Programs To Pay Significant Price
Hikes For HIV Meds
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Gilead Sciences, the largest maker of HIV medicines, is seeking to boost
prices significantly for several treatments that are widely distributed by
state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs… The company recently told the state
programs that it wants to raise prices in the high-single digits, on average,
as part of a new agreement scheduled to go into effect in January 2026.
Malone News: Big Pharma’s Advertising Blitz: Billions On TV Ads, Medical
Education, And Lobbying
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Pharmaceutical commercials are nearly impossible to avoid in the United
States. On average, American TV viewers see as many as nine drug ads per day,
totaling about 16 hours a year—far more time than most people spend with their
primary-care physician. Only the U.S. and New Zealand allow direct-to-consumer
(DTC) prescription drug ads, making American airwaves a primary battleground
for pharma marketing.
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