NBC News: ‘Gaming’ of U.S. patent system is keeping drug prices sky high, report says
Excerpts:
Drugmakers are able to extend the patents on their drugs, keeping generics off the market, through a process known as “evergreening”… The excessive use of the patent system — by drugmakers Bristol-Myers Squibb, AbbVie, Regeneron and Bayer — keeps the prices of the medications at exorbitant levels, often at the expense of American consumers, according to the report from the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge, or I-MAK, a nonprofit organization that advocates drug patent reform.
“They get the power, they get the monopoly and they start hiking their prices,” said Priti Krishtel, a health justice lawyer and a co-founder of I-MAK…
The U.S. patent system is meant to reward innovation by permitting drug companies to sell new medications on the market and barring other manufacturers from making generic versions for a set period of time — usually 20 years. Once the patent expires, generics are allowed on the market, often at a lower list price than the brand-name drug.
But drugmakers often extend their patents by making small tweaks to the drugs, sustaining their monopolies for several years...
Humira, a rheumatoid arthritis drug from the Chicago-based biotech firm AbbVie, generated $17.3 billion in annual sales in 2021. There are 311 patent applications for the drug, 94% of which were sought after FDA approval. AbbVie’s original patent on the drug expired in 2016, but it won’t face competition until 2023...
The practice of extending patents doesn’t always go unchallenged. In some cases, generic manufacturers sue the drugmakers to get their drugs on the market, Lemley said. However, he added, those lawsuits often end in settlements between the companies.
My take: As bioethicist Arthur Caplan states, this is an unethical practice and “we need to be rethinking the rules of patenting.” There is no good reason why patients in the U.S. need to be paying 5 times as much for adalimumab as patients in Europe.
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- For Policy Wonks: Bayh-Dole Act and Reducing Pharmaceutical Costs
- Heroes, Villains and ‘Perverse’ Incentives. Story of Big Hospitals vs. Big Pharma
- FDA Approves Adalimumab Biosimilar -But Will Enter U.S. Market in 2023! (posted in 2019)
- Why I No Longer Need to Be A Billionaire
- More on High Drug Costs (Humor)
- Why U.S. Consumers Pay More For Medications
- 5000% Increase for Well-Established Drug | gutsandgrowth
- Cornering the Generic Markup | gutsandgrowth
- “Health Insurance Is Broken”
- “America’s Huge Health Care Problem”
- Healthcare: “Where the Frauds Are Legal”
- NY Times: America can afford a world-class health system. Why don’t we have one?
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