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.
Please join Hudson Institute for a fireside chat with Senior Fellow and Keystone Defense Initiative Director Rebeccah Heinrichs and John Spencer, chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point and co-director of the Urban Warfare Project.
Join Hudson Institute and the Ben Franklin Fellowship for a two-panel discussion examining US policy as it confronts the crisis of terror in Nigeria.
Join Hudson Institute's Center for the Economics of the Internet for a keynote address given by Tricia Paoletta on the Trump administration's progress in managing and reallocating the electromagnetic radio frequency spectrum from the federal domain.
Join Hudson Institute for a discussion with Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Senior Fellow Harold Furchtgott-Roth.
