July 11, 2025
TOPLINE
In case you missed it, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) recently held a listening session on anti-competitive tactics Big Pharma uses to maintain monopoly pricing over blockbuster brand name products.
Experts and consumer advocates highlighted Big Pharma’s egregious abuse of the U.S. patent system during the session, including discussing tactics like “patent thicketing” – where a Big Pharma company files dozens or even hundreds of patents on a single medication to extend exclusivity. Big Pharma’s patent abuse blocks competition from more affordable alternatives, like generics and biosimilars. A 2023 analysis found patent thickets on just five blockbuster drugs resulted in more than $16 billion in lost savings in a single year.
Just last month, the FTC announced it would challenge the validity of more than 200 patents on brand name prescription drugs listed in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s Orange Book. The agency’s Orange Book crackdown and listening session should help shine a light on Big Pharma’s egregious anti-competitive practices and should add to bipartisan momentum in Congress for market-based solutions to lower drug prices for the American people.
Read more on what experts and advocates had to say during the listening session HERE. Read more about Big Pharma’s patent abuse HERE and read more on bipartisan, market-based solutions to hold Big Pharma accountable HERE.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
“Large, complex, high stakes drug markets do attract aggressive anti-competitive behaviors… The collective effects of a host of anti-competitive tactics, some of which we've already discussed, but including things like patent thickets and product hopping, raise the risk to manufacturers that the time and cost required to bring a biosimilar to market will be extended in an unpredictable manner. These strategies create uncertainty and are unequivocally inefficient.”
- Alex Brill, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
DATA POINTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
$10.1 Billion
The total advertising spend on marketing all prescription drugs across all channels in 2024, according to a report from Fierce Pharma.
TWEETS OF THE WEEK
@BasedMikeLee: “I have a bill called the Biosimilar Red Tape Elimination Act. Recently reintroduced in the Senate with fresh bipartisan support, the bill aims to streamline FDA regulations for biologics like insulin, Humira, and Remicade. High costs are still a barrier, and needless bureaucratic hurdles are to blame. Time for a change!”
@P4ADNOW: “Big Pharma says lower drug prices will hurt investment in new drugs – but the data proves that isn’t true. Since the passing of the 2022 prescription drug law, drug companies have increased research and development spending to $237B, proving it’s possible to have fairer prices and innovation.”
ROAD TO RECOVERY
Inside Health Policy: CSRxP: They Said It! Consumer Advocates And Experts Shine A Light On Big Pharma’s Egregious Anti-Competitive Tactics That Extend Monopolies And Keep Drug Prices High
In case you missed it, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday held a listening session on anti-competitive tactics Big Pharma uses to maintain monopoly pricing over blockbuster brand name products. Consumer advocates at Monday’s session called for reining in forms of patent abuse like “patent thicketing” – where a Big Pharma company files dozens or even hundreds of patents on a single medication to extend exclusivity – that block competition from more affordable generic or biosimilar alternatives. Such tactics significantly drive up costs for patients, with patent thickets on just five drugs amounting to more than $16 billion in lost savings over a single year.
The People’s Defender: Taylor Introduces Bill Requiring Price Transparency For Prescription Drugs
Congressman Dave Taylor (OH-02) and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (IL-09) recently introduced the bipartisan Drug-Price Transparency for Consumers Act of 2025, which would require drug companies to include the list price of prescription drugs in all direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertisements…“CSRxP commends Rep. Taylor and Rep. Schakowsky for their introduction of a U.S. House companion to the bipartisan Drug-price Transparency for Consumers (DTC) Act, that will help deter price-gouging by requiring disclosure of the prices set by brand name drug companies on blockbuster products in advertising directly targeting consumers,” said a spokesperson from the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing (CSRxP).
Inside Health Policy: Industry Groups Renew Push To Drop Interchangeable Distinction
Over 40 industry and patient advocacy groups are urging lawmakers to support a bill that would remove the distinction between biosimilars and interchangeable biosimilars, coming as FDA also asks Congress to put an end to the distinction and in the meantime tries to make it easier for biosimilars to get the “interchangeable” label. In a Tuesday (July 8) letter from the Association for Accessible Medicines and the Biosimilars Council, signed by 39 drug industry and patient advocacy groups, leaders of the House and Senate health committees are encouraged to support the Biosimilar Red Tape Elimination Act to increase patient access and reduce health care costs.
PHARMA’S POOR PROGNOSIS
PharmaVoice: Pricing Watchdog Will Take On The Rising Cost Of Drugs At Launch
Drug prices — particularly those set at launch by pharma companies — are spiraling upward, according to industry watchdog the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review. With a new report expected in October, ICER aims to explore the depth of these pricing increases, as well as how they relate to efficacy and access. The organization points to an analysis from April, which found that cancer drugs with higher launch prices between 2008 and 2022 weren’t necessarily more effective despite doubling from a net of $100,000 to $200,000 in that time. When it comes to patient access in the U.S., payer coverage adds another dynamic that further complicates the true cost of drugs, ICER said.
STAT News: How Regeneron, Maker Of A Best-Selling Eye Drug, Is Using Patent Tactics To Thwart Competition
A court battle between two of the nation’s largest biotechs — Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Amgen — is testing the legal limits of how far drugmakers can go in using patents to thwart competition. And the case is being closely watched by companies that sell biosimilar medicines amid concerns that the U.S. patent system is being gamed in ways that critics say can maintain high prices for medicines
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