U.S. Senate passes bill to trim Big Pharma “patent thickets”

The U.S. Senate has passed a bill aimed at easing the entrance of biosimilars and other generic drugs onto the U.S. market by preventing drugmakers from creating “patent thickets” to hinder competition.

The bill, called the Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act, was sponsored by U.S. Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). The legislation moves next to the U.S. House for consideration.

The bill is intended to prevent branded drugmakers from asserting multiple patents to thwart generic competition by limiting the number of patents that can be contested. Under current U.S. law, drugmakers are not limited to the number of patents they can assert during the patent dispute resolution process.

A statement issued by Cornyn’s office said the bill “will help deter branded manufacturers of biologics from gaming the system to increase the number of patents they assert, while preserving the incentives provided by the patent system to encourage the core innovation that produces new biologic treatments in the first place.”

Co-sponsors of the bill include Sens. Dick Durbin, Ted Cruz, Amy Klobuchar, Chuck Grassley, Peter Welch, Mike Braun and Lisa Murkowski.

“This long-overdue legislation would promote competition and lower prices for patients without standing in the way of innovation, and I urge my colleagues in the House to pass it as soon as possible,” Cornyn said in the statement.

Blumenthal added, “Our bipartisan, commonsense measure to crack down on Big Pharma’s shameless abuse of the patent system will protect competition and reduce prices at the pharmacy.”

Leading generic drugmakers include Teva (NYSE:TEVA), Dr. Reddy’s (RDY), Viatris (VTRS), Sandoz (OTCQX:SDZNY) (OTCQX:SDZXF), Amneal (AMRX) and Amphastar (AMPH).

CVS Health (CVS) has also established a presence in the biosimilars market through its new Cordavis unit.