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I-MAK Defends ‘Patent Thicket’ Claims In Response To Thom Tillis Letter

The Organization Was Accused By The Senator Of Peddling Inaccuracies

 
• By Chloe Kent

The Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge has responded to criticisms leveled by North Carolina senator Thom Tillis at a report it published in 2018. The report accuses pharmaceutical firms of using patent thickets to suppress generic and biosimilar competition in the US market.

(Patent) Thicket, Trees In A Forest
I-MAK has defended its claims that patent thickets block generic and biosimilar market entry • Source: Mateusz Kubacki / Alamy Stock Photo

The Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge has responded to a 31 January letter from North Carolina senator Thom Tillis, which questioned the methodology behind its claims that so-called patent thickets have prevented the entry of generic and biosimilar medications to the US market.

In his letter, Tillis noted that I-MAK’s data “differs by orders of magnitude from public sources like the US Orange Book and court filings,” and that many of the drugs it alleged were protected from competition through patent

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