08
October 2024
Past Event
Do Drug Patents Cause High Drug Prices?

Event will air on this page.

 

Inquiries: msnow@hudson.org

Do Drug Patents Cause High Drug Prices?

Past Event
Online Only
October 08, 2024
Prescription drugs are displayed at NYC Discount Pharmacy in Manhattan on July 23, 2024. (Spencer Platt via Getty Images)
Caption
Prescription drugs are displayed at NYC Discount Pharmacy in Manhattan on July 23, 2024. (Spencer Platt via Getty Images)
08
October 2024
Past Event

Event will air on this page.

 

Inquiries: msnow@hudson.org

Speakers:
Adam Mossoff
Adam Mossoff

Chair, Forum for Intellectual Property and Senior Fellow

William H. Pittman Professor of Law and Timothy J. Heinsz Professor of Law, University of Missouri School of Law
Erika Lietzan

William H. Pittman Professor of Law and Timothy J. Heinsz Professor of Law, University of Missouri School of Law

Vice President and Global Head of Intellectual Property Affairs, Novartis
Corey A. Salsberg

Vice President and Global Head of Intellectual Property Affairs, Novartis

Moderator:
hartline
Devlin Hartline

Senior Fellow

For the past decade, policy activists have argued that drug innovators artificially extend the length of their exclusive patent protections on their drugs solely to keep drug prices high. One activist organization, the Initiative for Medicines, Access, and Knowledge (I-MAK), alleges that as many as 50 patents currently protect drugs from generic competition. 

But are I-MAK’s patent numbers correct? A 2022 Hudson policy memo, “How Unreliable Data Has Infected the Policy Debate Over Drug Patents,”detailed how I-MAK’s patent numbers contradict the number of drug patents listed in the Orange Book, the Food and Drug Administration’s official database of drug patents. Academic scholars have also done rigorous empirical studies, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) released its own empirical study in June 2024. Neither the USPTO nor the academic studies could replicate or confirm activist organizations’ patent numbers. Yet I-MAK’s claims continue to drive legislative proposals and agency actions.

Join Hudson for an expert discussion on the state of play concerning the empirical evidence on the connection between drug patents and drug prices and whether officials are engaging in evidence-based policymaking on this pressing concern.

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