In a new article, Swiss pharmaceutical industry and healthcare reporter Jessica Davis Plüss argues that an under-discussed driver of high drug prices worldwide––including the cancer drug Keytruda––is the industry’s use of “patent thickets” that extend monopolies long after original patents should expire.
TAHIR AMIN; [email protected]
Amin is the founder and CEO of the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK).
Amin told the Institute for Public Accuracy: Davis Plüss’s reporting “highlights that despite all the various discussions and policy efforts to address high drug prices, the elephant in the room is not being tackled. That elephant is patents and how drug companies are using the system to extract longer monopolies and prices. It is notable that both the U.S. and Switzerland, homes to the major pharmaceutical companies, keep deflecting away from the patent issue despite the evidence being clear that it is at the root of high drug prices globally. Only by addressing patents and the power it gives pharmaceutical companies, will we have a more sustainable solution to the rampant rise in unaffordable drug prices and delayed competition.”