Patent thickets may go unpruned after all

If you’ve ever wondered how the world’s top-selling biologics manage to stay so profitable despite lapsing intellectual property, the answer is so-called patent thickets, the scores of filings that keep competition at bay years after key patents expire.

Now, as STAT’s Nicholas Florko reports, a congressional effort to curb that tactic looks like it’s been substantially watered down. A Senate bill that would have made weaving patent thickets more difficult has been effectively defanged after some heavy lobbying from the drug industry.

Sen. John Cornyn, the bill’s sponsor, has promised to rework the legislation before a Senate Judiciary Committee vote next week. The original version of the bill, which was particularly aggressive toward pharma, appears to be a thing of the past.

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