Patent Thickets and Product Hops: Challenges and Opportunities for Legislative Reform

Two key strategies that brand-name pharmaceutical manufacturers employ to limit generic competition are patent thickets and product hops. The former strategy entails obtaining numerous patents on peripheral features of products (not just the active ingredients), and the latter involves shifting active ingredients into reformulations with new patent protection that can extend periods of market exclusivity. These strategies have become particularly problematic for drug-device combinations like inhalers and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, which contain pharmaceutical compounds that are sold together with their delivery devices. The Senate Judiciary Committee moved three bipartisan bills out of committee during the last legislative session aimed at facilitating more timely generic competition. Although these bills offer a valuable step forward, more is needed to limit the sort of patent gamesmanship that has become pervasive in the US pharmaceutical industry. Such reforms should include routine reexamination by the US Patent and Trademark Office of patents submitted for listing with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a greater role for the FDA in reviewing such listings, limits on the number of patents that brand-name firms can assert when suing for infringement following patent challenges, stronger incentives for patent challenges, and more flexibility for the FDA to approve complex generic drugs.