Congressional Democrats aiming to reduce drug prices are targeting 130 patents, including some from the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk related to the expensive drug Ozempic. Democrats have hit on a new tactic in their long battle with drug companies: challenge patents that they say are deliberate attempts to game the system and box out low-cost, generic competitors.
“It’s part of President Biden’s efforts to use every tool in the toolbox to lower drug costs for Americans,” Warren said in an interview Thursday. “Congress has a role to play here, both in oversight … and to improve the rules so that Big Pharma can’t manipulate the system so aggressively.
Novo Nordisk and Sanders have been locked in a fight that has made front-page news in Denmark, where the nation’s economy has been boosted by the Danish pharmaceutical company’s sales of Ozempic, which is often prescribed off-label for weight loss, and weight-loss drug Wegovy. Sanders hasinto the company, using the same tactics that helped win inhaler price cuts, and warned that if Novo Nordisk does not curb prices on its weight-loss drugs, the U.S.
The FTC is preparing further actions against companies that did not remove their patents after last year’s challenges, said the person with knowledge of the enforcement process. The FTC and congressional Democrats’ joint efforts were touted at the White House in April, when Khan and Sanders joined President Biden tofor what they said were attempts to take advantage of the patent system, such as tweaking the cap of an inhaler.