AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GSK defend patent listings as Klobuchar amps up pressure

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is pres­sur­ing six phar­ma com­pa­nies to re­move im­prop­er­ly list­ed patents from the FDA’s Or­ange Book by the end of the month, af­ter the FTC in No­vem­ber sim­i­lar­ly chal­lenged a slew of patents for be­ing im­prop­er­ly list­ed.

In let­ters to Ab­b­Vie, As­traZeneca, Boehringer In­gel­heim, GSK, Vi­a­tris and Te­va sent Thurs­day, Klobuchar said that im­prop­er Or­ange Book list­ings hurt pa­tients be­cause they pre­vent cheap­er gener­ics from com­ing to mar­ket. She calls on the com­pa­nies to ei­ther re­move the patents from the Or­ange Book or pro­vide her with an ex­pla­na­tion for why they be­lieve the patents are prop­er­ly list­ed.

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