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USPTO Faces Growing Pressure To Enter Battle Over Drug Pricing

 
• By Brenda Sandburg

Members of Congress, companies and government agencies want the Patent Office to change policies that they say impede generic drug competition. The latest effort is focused on PTO’s discretionary denial of inter partes review petitions, which is the subject of a bipartisan congressional letter and cert petition to the US Supreme Court.

USPTO building
US Patent and Trademark Office is facing political pressure over its handling of patent challenges • Source: Alamy

The US Patent And Trademark Office has stayed on the sidelines in the fierce fight over the high cost of drugs. But in the past month calls for the agency to get involved in the dispute by changing its policies in issuing and reviewing patents has reached a crescendo. It is uncertain whether the outcry will result in significant changes but the lineup of forces facing off against the USPTO is giving renewed impetus to the drug pricing battle and has put a spotlight on one of the hottest topics in the patent bar right now.

Most recently, a bipartisan group of 11 members of Congress sent a letter to acting PTO director Andrew Hirshfeld objecting to the PTO’s policies on its discretionary denials of inter partes review (IPR) petitions, which challenge an issued patent

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