The Real Evergreening Problem in Drug Patent Policy: I-MAK’s Inaccurate and Unreliable Drug Patent Claims
For well over 50 years, U.S. policymakers have debated the cost of healthcare. These debates have produced numerous laws and regulatory initiatives aimed at lowering healthcare prices for patients. In recent years, though, the debate has focused on drug patents due to claims that they cause higher prescription drug prices. Seven bills were introduced in the last two years in the 119th Congress that alter patent doctrines, eliminate patent rights, or sanction drug innovators under the antitrust laws—all for the stated goal of lowering drug prices.
Who created this link between drug patents and prescription drug prices? One of the principal sources is a policy organization called the Initiative for Medicines, Access, and Knowledge (I-MAK). Founded about 20 years ago, I-MAK’s mission is to convince policymakers that a “root cause of the high cost of medicines” is “unjust patent monopolies,” as it states on its website.
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