E-drug: Drug firms use legal loopholes to safeguard brand names
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[Circulated as fair use. HH]
BMJ 2000;321:320 (5 August 2000)
Drug firms use legal loopholes to safeguard brand names.
Scott Gottlieb, New York
Drug companies are using legal loopholes to extend patents for their
most lucrative brand name products and delay the entry of cheaper
generics on to the market, according to a report from the National
Institute for Health Care Management.
Intellectual property protections enacted over the past two decades
have increased the average patent life of new drugs by at least 50%
according to the report. Although patent protections were intended to
provide incentives for innovation, they have brought higher prices for
consumers and heftier profits for brand name makers. Brand name
drugs now have patent lives averaging 14-15 years, compared with
eight years in the early 1980s.
The report charges that drug companies have used legal loopholes to
extend the active life of patents covering their most lucrative drugs,
thus keeping cheaper generics out of the market. "Congress has
passed a lot of laws, all well intentioned, but they have been a great
windfall for the pharmaceutical industry," said Nancy Chockley,
president of the non-profit group that prepared the report. "The
current system appears to be out of balance, and it is costing
Americans billions of dollars."
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the main
industry trade group, sharply criticised the report. Citing the fact that
the non-profit group behind the report gets some funding from
managed care companies, the group's president, Alan Holmer, said:
"The sponsors' self serving agenda is to reduce patent terms for
medicines to save money for themselves." The report comes as
Congress is embroiled in a debate over how to lower drug costs,
especially for elderly people without insurance.
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