CAPA Urges Senators Tillis & Coons To Reject Legislation That Panders To Big Pharma

Coalition calls on Senators Tillis and Coons to amend their draft legislation and protect significant Supreme Court rulings on patents that restrict abuse by Big Pharma

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Coalition Against Patent Abuse, a diverse coalition of healthcare providers, consumer groups, patient advocacy organizations, free market advocates and others released the following statement today highlighting the coalition’s letter to U.S. Senators Thom Tillis and Chris Coons opposing their legislation to amend Section 101 of the Patent Act. As proposed, this legislation would overrule over 150 years of carefully crafted Supreme Court precedent on patent eligibility and open the floodgates to further abuses of the patent system by Big Pharma. The following statements are attributable to Matthew Lane, Executive Director of the Coalition Against Patent Abuse:

“For Americans facing rising prescription drug costs, this legislation is deeply troubling. The Tillis-Coons bill will abolish decades of Supreme Court precedent and allow Big Pharma to continue raising prescription drug prices and eliminating patient choice for treatments. The high costs of prescription drugs in the United States is a major problem, and it cannot be addressed until major drug companies are prevented from gaming the patent system in an effort to eliminate pricing competition.

“Worse still is the fact that this legislation would overturn the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Myriad and allow drug companies to patent isolated human genes. The Supreme Court has also routinely held that companies cannot patent abstract ideas, including laws of science and medicine. This legislation would overturn these decisions. History shows that the effect of legislation like this will leave everyday Americans unable to learn information about their own genetic material or even about their own health.

“We strongly condemn this harmful legislation. With ever-rising prescription drug costs, everyday Americans need real solutions that prevent, not enable, Big Pharma’s patent abuse. Our Coalition stands ready to work with Congress to promote innovation and lower costs without enabling Big Pharma’s continuing abuse of the patent system.”

For more information, please visit www.capanow.org

About CAPA

The Coalition Against Patent Abuse are healthcare providers, consumer groups, patient advocacy organizations, free market advocates, employers, and others fighting abuses of the patent system that can extend government-granted monopolies that illegitimately keep drug prices high for years, or even decades. Our members include the following groups and organizations: America’s Health Insurance Plans, Association for Accessible Medicines, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing, Citizen Outreach, Consumer Action, Innovation Defense Fund, Institute for Liberty, Kaiser Permanente, Knowledge Ecology International, Lincoln Network, R Street Institute, Society for Patient Centered Orthopedics, and U.S. Public Interest Research Group.