CSRxP APPLAUDS REINTRODUCTION OF REMEDY ACT IN U.S. SENATE 

Bipartisan, Market-Based Solution Would Help Crack Down on Anti-Competitive Big Pharma Tactic Called ‘Evergreening’

Washington, D.C. – The Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing (CSRxP) issued a statement Wednesday following the reintroduction of the Reforming Evergreening and Manipulation that Extends Drug Years (REMEDY) Act by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA).

“Big Pharma’s egregious abuse of the patent system extends monopolies and enables brand name drug companies’ price-gouging,” said CSRxP executive director Lauren Aronson. “We applaud Senators Durbin and Cassidy for reintroducing the REMEDY Act that would help crack down on Big Pharma’s anti-competitive practice known as evergreening, in which sham patents are filed around blockbuster drugs to trigger automatic delays in approval for alternatives trying to enter the market.”

“Big Pharma’s patent abuse costs patients and the U.S. health care system billions of dollars each year,” Aronson added. “Congress can build on recent positive progress toward lowering drug prices for patients by advancing this, and additional, market-based solutions to foster greater competition by holding Big Pharma accountable.”

The bipartisan REMEDY Act targets an anti-competitive practice known as ‘evergreening’ employed by brand name drug manufacturers to extend exclusivity by filing patents that trigger automatic delays in U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for generic manufacturers. Often, those patents are for trivial changes to a medication that have no effect on the way a drug treats a patient, like alterations to a pill color or casing. Specifically, the bill narrows the scope of the automatic 30-month stay under Hatch-Waxman so that only a single, identified patent can trigger the 30-month stay, rather than the current ability for any challenged patent to give rise to the stay.

Read more on recent positive progress toward cracking down on Big Pharma’s patent abuse HERE.

Read more on bipartisan, market-based solutions to hold Big Pharma accountable HERE.