CSRxP: SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE MUST REJECT BIG PHARMA’S FALSE RHETORIC ON INNOVATION, HOLD BRAND NAME MANUFACTURERS ACCOUNTABLE FOR PATENT ABUSE

Big Pharma’s Anti-Competitive Tactics That Extend Monopolies Are Disconnected from Any True Innovation, Designed to Keep Drug Prices High

Washington, D.C. – The Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing (CSRxP) released the following statement ahead of a U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing titled: “From Genes to Machines: the Patent Eligibility Debate.”

“Big Pharma’s egregious abuse of the U.S. patent system is the root cause of out-of-control prescription drug prices in America,” said CSRxP executive director Lauren Aronson. “Brand name drug manufacturers game the system to extend monopolies on blockbuster products long beyond what Congress intended, block competition from more affordable alternatives and keep Americans locked into paying high prices.”

“As the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary examines patent eligibility reforms, it is essential that lawmakers hold Big Pharma accountable for anti-competitive practices that keep drug prices high for American patients, taxpayers and the U.S. health care system and reject the pharmaceutical industry’s rhetoric on innovation that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny,” Aronson continued. “Patent laws were designed to reward true innovation and clinical breakthroughs, not to enable brand name pharmaceutical giants to game the system with patent thickets, evergreening and other schemes that block and delay competition from more affordable alternatives to keep drug prices high.”

BIG PHARMA’S ANTI-COMPETITIVE PATENT ABUSE TACTICS THAT KEEP PRICES HIGH

• Patent Abuse on Just Four Blockbuster Drugs Cost $3.5 Billion in Two Years: In August 2025, a study published in JAMA Health Forum found that lost competition due to Big Pharma’s patent thickets on just four widely prescribed brand name drugs cost patients, taxpayers and the U.S. health care system more than $3.5 billion in excess spending over two years.

• Big Pharma’s Patent Thickets On Just Five Drugs Cost Over $16 Billion in a Single Year: A January 2023 report from Matrix Global Advisors, “Patent Thickets and Lost Drug Savings,” quantified the one-year cost of lost savings on five brand name drugs around which Big Pharma has built especially egregious patent thickets. The five drugs were AbbVie’s autoimmune drug Humira and oncology drug Imbruvica, Regeneron’s ophthalmology drug Eylea, Amgen’s autoimmune drug Enbrel and Bristol Myers Squibb’s oncology drug Opdivo.

• Delayed Generic And Biosimilar Competition Costs U.S. Health System Hundreds of Billions in Excess Spending: An analysis from the Association for Accessible Medicines estimated that accelerating access to generic and biosimilar drugs could generate $422.9 billion in savings by reducing prices through competition.

• Big Pharma Increasingly Utilizing Secondary Patents to Extend Monopoly Pricing: A January 2026 study published in JAMA Health Forum highlights how Big Pharma has been increasingly relying on secondary and tertiary patents that are unconnected to the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) in top-selling drugs to extend monopoly pricing. Among 331 analyzed drugs, manufacturers “listed 3,241 patents in the FDA’s Orange Book…more than half – 54 percent – were tertiary patents covering devices or device-related features, while only 4.2 percent were primary patents on the active pharmaceutical ingredient.”

Read more on how Big Pharma’s patent abuse is the root cause of high prescription drug prices HERE.

Read more on how Big Pharma’s innovation rhetoric doesn’t hold up to scrutiny HERE.

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