Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
A new CBO score is encouraging backers of a bill to overhaul drug patents who are trying to include it in a year-end health deal.
Why it matters: The bipartisan measure from Sens. Richard Blumenthal and John Cornyn would generate about $3 billion in savings over a decade, making it a potential offset for extending telehealth flexibilities or averting Medicare physician payment cuts.
Driving the news: The new score generated about three times as much savings as in a 2022 CBO projection.
- "The new score will undoubtedly add to growing bipartisan momentum on Capitol Hill to pass market-based solutions to hold brand-name drug companies accountable for gaming the patent system," said Jon Conradi, a spokesman for the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing, which comprises insurers, providers and others.
Between the lines: The Cornyn-Blumenthal bill has two main components, both aimed at preventing drug companies from gaming the patent system to fend off competition from less expensive generics.
- One piece targets "product hopping," in which a company makes small changes to the formulation of a drug in a bid to extend market exclusivity.
- The other targets the use of multiple patents on the same product, referred to as "thickets," also to forestall competition.
The pharmaceutical industry is most opposed to the product hopping section of the bill, saying it would hinder research that happens after a drug's initial approval.
- Lobbyists say it's still possible that the bill could be split up to pass only the less controversial patent thicket piece.
- Still, Megan Van Etten, a PhRMA spokesperson, said the group has concerns with the patent thicket piece, characterizing it as "Congress prohibiting innovators from enforcing lawfully granted patents."
What they're saying: "I think we will have movement, but I'm not sure of the exact timing," Blumenthal told Axios today when asked about the bill.
- The measure advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last year on a bipartisan basis, along with other drug pricing patent bills, like cracking down on "pay for delay" arrangements.
- Judiciary Ranking Member Lindsey Graham at a hearing last month expressed frustration at the lack of movement on the bills so far. "We pass all these bills. We have a common view of the problem and nothing ever happens," he said.
- But a health care package in the lame duck session could finally provide an opening.
