Senators strike bipartisan tone on more pharma patent reforms

Re­pub­li­cans and De­moc­rats on the Sen­ate Ju­di­cia­ry Com­mit­tee on Tues­day both ac­knowl­edged the need for fur­ther re­forms on how phar­ma patents are re­viewed and how the sys­tem func­tions.

The is­sue of drug patent re­form ap­pears to have brought mem­bers from both sides of the aisle to­geth­er. Sen­a­tors said at Tues­day’s hear­ing that they were in­un­dat­ed with sto­ries from their home states on un­af­ford­able med­i­cines. There was a fre­quent men­tion of Ab­b­Vie’s Hu­mi­ra, the block­buster drug that has be­come a poster child for patent thick­ets — webs of le­gal pro­tec­tion that can de­lay the en­try of com­peti­tor drugs.

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