Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge

Happy to see the "Bill to Address Patent Thickets" being reintroduced as the "ETHIC Act." The ETHIC Act would prohibit branded drug companies from asserting more than one patent fr... Happy to see the "Bill to Address Patent Thickets" being reintroduced as the "ETHIC Act." The ETHIC Act would prohibit branded drug companies from asserting more than one patent from a group of patent...

Learn more about the ETHIC Act ⤵️

✍️ A breakdown from our Legal Associate Namita Dhawan-Muren: linkedin.com/posts/namita...

📝 Press Release from @welch.senate.gov: welch.senate.gov/welch-hawley...

By limiting the number of patents per terminally-disclaimed group a drug company can assert in litigation, the ETHIC Act aims to curb this abuse of the patent system and create a more competitive pharmaceutical industry.

The goal of the branded drug company isn’t necessarily to win the legal battles, but simply to delay competitors from entering the market. Every day a competitor is tied up in court is another day that patients are forced to pay monopoly prices.

While patents with terminal disclaimers may not extend the total duration of patent protection on a drug, branded drug companies use them to build large patent thickets that they assert against competitors to create drawn-out legal battles that can take years to resolve.

A terminal disclaimer is a practice used to overcome a rejection of a patent application based on a finding that the application is an obvious variant of an applicant's previous patent/application. The applicant disclaims the patent term that extends beyond that of the previous patent/application.

If passed, the ETHIC Act could help address some of the excesses of patent thicketing by limiting the number of patents drug companies can assert in litigation to one patent per patent group connected by terminal disclaimers.

NEWS: Senators @welch.senate.gov (D-VT), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and @klobuchar.senate.gov (D-MN) introduced the Eliminating Thickets to Improve Competition (ETHIC) Act.

So, what is the ETHIC Act?🧵

AbbVie offered technical employees iPhones, iPads, and Apple computers as rewards for coming up with new ideas to "increase the patent coverage for Humira."

In a recent FTC listening session, Hans Sauer of BIO suggested that pharma execs don’t coordinate with lawyers to strategically use patents to block competition. I guess he forgot about the Congressional investigation exposing how AbbVie hired McKinsey to do exactly that.

First look: Welch-Hawley "patent thicket" bill The collaboration reflects bipartisan support for overhauling the patent process.

SEN. PETER WELCH (D-VT): For decades, Big Pharma has exploited U.S. courts and the patent system through anticompetitive practices that prevent generic and biosimilar competitors from entering the market, forcing Vermonters to pay more out of pocket for lifesaving drugs
www.axios.com/pro/health-c...

Senators Float 'Patent Thicket' Bill To Limit Generic Litigation - Law360 A bill floated in the U.S. Senate would limit the use of so-called patent thickets that are asserted by major pharmaceutical companies in litigation to restrict generic competition.

www.law360.com/articles/236...

Theresa Schliep of @law360.bsky.social reports on the ETHIC Act ⤵️

"[A] report released in April by the Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge, an advocacy group, said the two major pharmaceutical companies behind leading GLP-1 products are leveraging patent thickets to delay competition.”

⌛️ Time is running out to reserve your spot for this upcoming conversation with @tahiramin.bsky.social of @imakglobal.bsky.social!

🔗 RSVP today:
attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/522...

How does the U.S. patent system shape drug prices? And who profits?

Join us on July 22 at 11AM ET for a virtual conversation hosted by @capitolforum.bsky.social

RSVP: register.gotowebinar.com/register/522...

Thank you to The Plus SideZ podcast for having me on to talk about the patent system and how the pharma industry’s abuse of it keeps GLP-1 prices so high.

💊 How does the U.S. patent system shape drug prices? And who profits?

Join us Tuesday, July 22 at 11:00 a.m. EDT for more on these topics with @tahiramin.bsky.social, co-founder and CEO of @imakglobal.bsky.social.

🔗 RSVP: attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/522...

Stop Skyrocketing Drug Prices: A Briefing on Patents and Drug Prices - R Street Institute Featuring Patricia Kelmar, Senior Director, Health Care Campaigns, Public Interest Research Group Wayne Brough, Resident Senior Fellow, Technology and Innovation, R Street Institute Tahir Amin, Chief ...

Join us!

Stop Skyrocketing Drug Prices: A Briefing on Patents and Drug Prices

🗓️ July 30
🕛 12-1PM ET
🏛️ Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2237

Speakers: @tahiramin.bsky.social, Patricia Kelmar, Wayne Brough, and Christy Robinson

Hosted by @rstreet.bsky.social and PIRG

A path to fair drug pricing: examining competition, value, and access - Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy In this in-person forum, we will explore how AI in health care is evolving and how we can harness AI to improve patient care.

Join us on July 15 in Washington DC for The Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy's forum, "A Path to Fair Drug Pricing: Examining Competition, Value, and Access."

🗓️ July 15
🕘 9am - 2:15pm ET
📍 The Center for Total Health

www.kpihp.org/ihp_events/a...

NIALL STANAGE: 83% of all Americans, including 84% of Democrats and 89% of Republicans, said in a 2023 poll that Big Pharma’s profits are a major reason why prescription drugs cost so much.

TAHIR AMIN (@tahiramin.bsky.social): I think progress is being made [on drug pricing and patent reform]...Not quick enough…We need to get further upstream to the root of the problem…It’s starting with the drug companies and how they use the patent system. That is what gives them the power.

TAHIR AMIN (@tahiramin.bsky.social): There is a concern on both sides of the aisle that the lack of competition [in the pharma industry] is actually driving prices up.

TAHIR AMIN (@tahiramin.bsky.social): Novo Nordisk spends more on buying back shares and paying off its shareholders than it does on R&D…This idea that [pharma companies] need to charge higher prices so they can do the R&D is actually not entirely true.

TAHIR AMIN (@tahiramin.bsky.social): It’s important for the public to really become more and more in tune with how the [pharma] companies are using the patent system for their own gain and not as it was originally intended…its become an ATM.

Our own @tahiramin.bsky.social joined The Hill’s Niall Stanage to discuss what we uncovered in our latest report.

Drugmakers’ Secret Weapon To Keep Your Meds Overpriced Big drugmakers are abusing the drug patent process to generate extra revenue at the cost of patients, according to a new report.

“We want to expose how the patent system has become a tool to drive the business model and financial gain…It’s a corruption of the patent system”

@tahiramin.bsky.social walks through our new Overpatented, Overpriced report with @levernews.com

www.levernews.com/drugmakers-s...

ICYMI: @p4adnow.bsky.social highlighted our new Overpatented, Overpriced report in its “Week In Review” newsletter 👉 patientsforaffordabledrugsnow.org/2025/06/20/t...

Big Pharma Can Tweak Drugs to Keep Generics Off the Market Taking advantage of a broken patent system, Big Pharma is making minor tweaks to medications just to keep affordable generics off the market, a new report suggests. They’ve made billions of dollars in...

“Taking advantage of a broken patent system, Big Pharma is making minor tweaks to medications just to keep affordable generics off the market” - @helenwsantoro.bsky.social for @jacobinmag.bsky.social
jacobin.com/2025/06/big-...

Drugmakers’ Secret Weapon To Keep Your Meds Overpriced Big drugmakers are abusing the drug patent process to generate extra revenue at the cost of patients, according to a new report.

“Big drugmakers are abusing the drug patent process to generate extra revenue at the cost of patients” - @helenwsantoro.bsky.social for @levernews.com
www.levernews.com/drugmakers-s...

Big Pharma Can Tweak Drugs to Keep Generics Off the Market Taking advantage of a broken patent system, Big Pharma is making minor tweaks to medications just to keep affordable generics off the market, a new report suggests. They’ve made billions of dollars in the process.

Taking advantage of a broken patent system, Big Pharma is making minor tweaks to medications just to keep affordable generics off the market, a new report suggests.

They’ve made billions of dollars in the process.

Drugmakers’ Secret Weapon To Keep Your Meds Overpriced Big drugmakers are abusing the drug patent process to generate extra revenue at the cost of patients, according to a new report.

Big drugmakers are abusing the drug patent process to generate extra revenue at the cost of patients, according to a new report. www.levernews.com/drugmakers-s...