Inside STAT: Democrats eye pharma's patents as a drug pricing target

Newly empowered Democrats in D.C. are on the hunt for bigger and bolder ways to lower drug prices. And they’re taking aim at a central part of pharma’s monopoly power: the patents the industry holds on drugs. The drug industry’s intellectual property rights have long seemed untouchable — the argument is that messing with a government-granted monopoly will lead to investments in research and development disappearing. But after a midterm election that saw voters more focused on drug prices than ever, progressives are taking aim at the intellectual property monopolies that give pharma the ability to charge sky-high prices. STAT’s Lev Facher has the story here.