They were supposed to talk about the patent system driving up drug prices. But most lawmakers got distracted by small tweaks.

Stat News

7 May 2019 - If there was any hope that Congress might overhaul the way this country doles out the patents drug makers get for their new medicines as part of its efforts to drive down drug costs, Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the issue issue quashed it.

The hearing began with an admonition from the committee’s chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham, that Congress would “do something on patents and prescription drugs this year.” 

But law makers seemed more eager to talk Tuesday about peripheral tweaks to the patent system — or issues entirely unrelated to patents — than about the kind of fundamental reforms that would make it harder for drug makers to file hundreds of patents to shield an expensive drug from competition.

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Michael Wonder

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Michael Wonder