Vermont Business Magazine Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) joined the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property Wednesday to address Big Pharma’s abuse of the patent system. The hearing included testimony from the Honorable Katherine Vidal, Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
The hearing addressed patent thickets, which are dense webs of overlapping patents granted to pharmaceutical companies that expand a drug’s patent protection, allowing pharmaceutical companies to keep generics out of the market—extending a market monopoly and driving up drug costs for everyday Americans.
“As you know, many of these patent holders then use devices to extent that period beyond the original grant of exclusivity. I just want to give an example of AbbVie and Humira. That period of exclusivity was supposed to expire in 2016. And in Europe it did. But by creating a patent thicket, AbbVie was able to create litigation obstacles to biosimilars and competitors keeping them off the market and driving up the cost of Humira to Americans,” said Sen. Welch.
“When you have a patent system that can be abused by the patent holders, and they can go beyond the period of exclusivity, it’s brutal on the cost of health care for American employers, to taxpayers, and to private payers,” he continued.
“Humira, in the U.S. it’s $3000. Right now, in Sweden, it’s $225. It’s $10 in Germany. So the question I have—and I’m sure this is a concern to you—is what is the ability—and the commitment—of the Patent Office to stop the extension of that period of exclusivity and monopoly power that has been so consistently abused by the drug companies to rip-off American taxpayers?”
For video of Sen. Welch’s full remarks, please click the image above.
Source: 7.26.2023. WASHINGTON—Senator Peter Welch (D-VT)
