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- Title
Why Pharmaceutical Patent Thickets Are Unique.
- Authors
Carrier, Michael A.; Tu, S. Sean
- Abstract
Companies have protected their products with large portfolios of patents. The drug company AbbVie, for example, has collected more than 100 patents on its blockbuster drug Humira. Many have raised concerns about such patent thickets" in the pharmaceutical industry, which have become a pressing concern given the increasingfrequency of thickets and effects on patients' lives. In response, some have downplayed concern by pointing to large patent portfolios in other industries, in particular, high technology. This Essay offers the jirst refutation of this argument. explaining why it fails on two basic levels. First, pharmaceutical companies have all of the patents they need to enter the market. As a result, they do not need to license, instead accumulating patents to block rivals. In contrast, because Of the presence of patents from multiple owners in products, high-technology firms need to engage in "cross licensing," which leads them to amass patents. Exclusion is exacerbated by the pharmaceutical industry's higher regulatory barriers and firm concentration. Second, we offer original empirical evidence supporting our hypothesis that pharmaceutical firms use duplicative patents to block market entry. We learn useful information from an analysis of continuation patents, which cannot disclose any new matter. Wejind that continuations have recently increased in the pharmaceutical industry, especially as compared to the high-technology industry. We also jind that the pharmaceutical industry litigates continuation patents at a much higher rate than the high-technology industries, which is consistent with keeping rivals off the market. We show similar results ®r "method-of-use patents," which drugfirms have used to delay generic entry, and.for the Humira patent thicket.
- Subjects
PHARMACEUTICAL industry; PATENTS; ADALIMUMAB; GENERIC drugs; MARKET entry
- Publication
Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal, 2024, Vol 32, Issue 2, p79
- ISSN
1068-1000
- Publication type
Article