The Solution

Thankfully, congress created a process to address these scenarios that allows generic drug companies to challenge these weaker patents through a process called inter partes review (IPR). Successful IPR challenges are more efficient than the usual patent challenge procedures, and when successful, can get generic drugs into patients’ hands faster.

It should come as no surprise that brand drug companies are working to weaken the IPR process or exempt pharmaceuticals from IPR entirely.

Congress and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office should ignore big pharma’s attacks on the IPR process. The Inter Partes Review is working as designed to eliminate bad patents, improve patent quality, increase the value of higher quality patents by weeding out the worst ones, and helping speed safe, low cost generic medicines into the marketplace and into patient’s hands.