Patents and Drug Pricing: Why Weakening Patent Protection Is Not in the Public's Best Interest

• Pages: 26-32
• Date: 01 March 2025
• Published date: 01 March 2025
• Author: Heather M. Petruzzi,Jerry A. Salvatore,Patrick E. Nyman
• Subject Matter: Derecho Público y Administrativo

LANDSLIDE March/April 2025

Published in Landslide, Volume 17, Number 3, 2025. © 2025 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion

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American Bar Association.

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Patents and Drug Pricing

Why Weakening Patent Protection Is Not in the Public’s

Best Interest

Heather M. Petruzzi, Jerry A. Salvatore,

and Patrick E. Nyman

The price of branded drugs in the United States has been and

continues to be a hot topic. While various causes have been

alleged, recent attention has focused heavily on the U.S.

patent system. Lawmakers, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Oce

(USPTO), and even the former president have called for or sought to

push through substantial changes to the patent system that weaken

pharmaceutical patents. Blaming the patent system, however, over-

states the impact patents have on drug prices. The correlation

between the number of pharmaceutical patents associated with

a product and competition is far from clear (as even the USPTO

has found1), and by many metrics the patent system is working as

intended. Yet many proposed “solutions” have treated patents as

an easy f‌ix without considering downstream ramif‌ications.

This article discusses the importance of patents, the current

frameworks in which generic and biosimilar manufacturers

may rely on the innovator’s (e.g., branded company’s) research

and development (R&D) to market their own products, recent

governmental actions to weaken pharmaceutical patents, and

why blaming patents for high drug prices oversimplif‌ies a complex

system and ignores the need to incentivize innovation. Finally,

this article oers a few guiding principles for what change could

look like.

Heather M. Petruzzi is a partner at WilmerHale in Washington,

D.C., where her practice focuses on patent litigation,

counseling, and post-grant practice in the life sciences sector.

She can be reached at heather.petruzzi@wilmerhale.com.

Jerry A. Salvatore is a counsel at WilmerHale in Washington,

D.C., where his practice focuses on patent litigation and

counseling in both the life sciences and hi-tech sectors.

He can be reached at jerry.salvatore@wilmerhale.com.

Patrick E. Nyman, PhD, is a senior associate at WilmerHale

in Washington, D.C., where his practice focuses on patent

litigation and counseling in the life sciences sector. He can

be reached at patrick.nyman@wilmerhale.com.

Image: Getty Images/apomares