A bipartisan effort in the Senate Judiciary Committee has led to the passage of two bills designed to lower prescription drug costs by targeting anti-competitive practices within the pharmaceutical industry.
Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Dick Durbin (D-IL) issued statements emphasizing the importance of these measures.
The legislation, titled the Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act and the Drug Competition Enhancement Act, aims to address the ways some pharmaceutical companies manipulate the patent system and marketplace to prevent lower-cost alternatives from reaching consumers.
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“Patent thicketing and product hopping are abusive and anti-competitive practices that hinder generic drugs from entering the marketplace and raise prices for consumers,” said Sen. Cornyn. “These bills would root out this wrongdoing and hold bad actors in the pharmaceutical industry accountable to ensure Texans can access the treatments and life-saving medications they need without breaking the bank.”
“For too long, pharmaceutical companies have been allowed to abuse the patent system, stifling innovation and driving up costs for consumers,” said Sen. Blumenthal. “This legislation cracks down on drug companies’ manipulative and exploitative practices, promoting competition and lowering prescription drug costs for patients.”
“The steep price of life-saving medication puts a major strain on Iowans,” said Sen. Grassley. “Our legislation will help reduce the cost of prescription drugs by ending the abusive practice of blocking generic and biosimilar drugs from entering the market.”
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“I’m pleased the Senate Judiciary Committee passed our Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act and Drug Competition Enhancement Act. Americans shouldn’t be forced to choose between their wallets and their health. But because Big Pharma games the system, too many patients face sky-high prescription drug costs,” said Sen. Durbin. “I urge the Senate to take these bills up quickly so we can ensure that the Senate is looking out for Americans, not Big Pharma.”
The senators highlighted that some pharmaceutical manufacturers employ tactics such as “product hopping” and abuse of the “patent dance” process to obstruct competition and maintain high prices.
The Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act seeks to prevent the misuse of the patent system to block biosimilars (lower-cost versions of biologic drugs) from competing with brand-name drugs. It places limits on the number of patents that a branded drug manufacturer can assert during the “patent dance,” a process designed to resolve patent disputes before a biosimilar enters the market.
This aims to prevent “patent thickets,” which are dense webs of patents used to discourage competition. The goal is to encourage innovation while preventing pharmaceutical companies from gaming the system to delay biosimilar competition.
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The Drug Competition Enhancement Act targets “product hopping,” a practice where companies switch patients to a slightly altered, newer version of a drug before the patent on the original drug expires. This allows them to avoid competition from cheaper generic versions of the original drug.
The bill would make anticompetitive product hopping an antitrust violation, giving the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the authority to take enforcement action against companies engaging in this behavior. It aims to facilitate the entry of generic and biosimilar drugs into the market, thereby driving down drug costs for patients.
The successful passage of these bills out of the Senate Judiciary Committee represents a significant step towards addressing concerns about the high cost of prescription drugs and promoting greater competition within the pharmaceutical industry.
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