Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is leading a push to see if pharmaceutical companies are abusing federal laws to extend the life of their patents and fend off competition by generic drugmakers. That effort will be on display when the Senate Judiciary Committee hears from drug companies industry group and advocates for lowering drug prices.
I dont want patents to be used in a fashion to extend the life of a drug for a profit thats what concerns me" Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) chairman of the Judiciary Committee said.
Cornyn told reporters recently hes looking to get a bill into a package of health-care bills set to reach the Senate floor this summer."
Bloomberg Government:
Drug-Patent Rules Alleged Abuses Under Senate Panels Scrutiny
Alex Ruoff
May 7 2019
Federal patent rules and the debate over whether they make prescription drugs more expensive are set to take center stage at a Senate hearing today.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is leading a push to see if pharmaceutical companies are abusing federal laws to extend the life of their patents and fend off competition by generic drugmakers. That effort will be on display when the Senate Judiciary Committee hears from drug companies industry group and advocates for lowering drug prices.
I dont want patents to be used in a fashion to extend the life of a drug for a profit thats what concerns me" Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) chairman of the Judiciary Committee said.
Cornyn told reporters recently hes looking to get a bill into a package of health-care bills set to reach the Senate floor this summer.
However two other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are separately holding broader discussions with companies to discuss federal rules about what can or should be eligible for a patent. Those debates are focused on clarifying patent rules not addressing drug prices Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) one of the efforts leaders said.
The Judiciary Committee hearing will showcase messages from two sides of the issue. Slated to speak are: David Mitchell president and founder of Patients for Affordable Drugs an advocacy group that in 2018 ran ads opposing lawmakers who they felt were too cozy with pharmaceutical companies and James Stansel executive vice president for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America the drug industrys main lobbying arm.
Drug Patent Questions
Drug patent rules are meant to reward companies that invest millions of dollars into research for new innovative medicines by blocking generic copies for a set period of time as long as 20 years. However the vast majority of patents associated with the pharmaceutical industry are for existing products raising the question of whether theyre filed just to ward off competition according to a recent study published in the Journal of Law and Bioscience.
One example thats caught the eye of lawmakers: AbbVie Inc. has secured more than 100 patents around various aspects of its best-selling rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira.
It isnt clear how senators will tackle the issue. Some advocates want to end pay for delay" tactics where brand-name companies pay generic drug makers to forgo making low-cost copies of their products. Others have argued that patents need a date certain ending" that cant be extended.
Separate Issues
The Republican and Democratic heads of the Senate Judiciarys Subcommittee on Intellectual Property Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Coons are working on legislation to address new patent eligibility rules that they see as unrelated to the question of potential abuses by drugmakers or lowering drug prices.
They are both patent problems but they are very different" Coons said. Both he and Tillis are up for re-election in 2020.
Coons and Tillis earlier this year held a pair of closed-door meetings to discuss patent changes that have included members of the brand name and generic drug lobbying groups: the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization.
Advocates for overhauling drug patent rules have warned theyve been left out of these discussions.
