IP Issues

AAM Statement on PACED Act of 2018

MEDIA ADVISORY
 

“With everyone from patients to the president demanding action on drug pricing, AAM welcomes the introduction of the Preserving Access to Cost Effective Drugs (“PACED”) Act of 2018. This legislation will put a stop to the recent anticompetitive ploy made infamous by Allergan when it rented sovereign immunity from a Native American tribe to avoid legitimate review of disputed patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO).

Seeking Asylum for Its Patents on Tribal Lands: The Latest Brand-Name Drug Company Strategy to Preserve Monopoly Pricing

In September 2017, Allergan, the maker of Restasis, adopted an unprecedented strategy: it paid the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe millions of dollars to rent its tribal sovereign immunity in a blatant effort to shield the patents on Restasis from review. The maneuver has deservedly attracted attention in the media (see The New Yorker and Fortune) and, now, the House Judiciary Committee.

Allergan Deal - The Latest Ploy

In September 2017, Allergan adopted an unprecedented strategy: it paid millions of dollars to rent the sovereign immunity of a Native American Tribe, and now claims that its patents are beyond the reach of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). In effect, Allergan's patents are seeking asylum on tribal lands.

AAM White Paper: Renting Tribal Immunity to Evade IPR Review of Pharmaceutical Patents

For more than four decades, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) review of issued patents has been considered a vital component of a healthy patent system, and Congress has worked to improve that review system to systematically eliminate invalid, competition-killing patents. The rental of Native American sovereign immunity by brand name drug companies is a transparent attempt to thwart this process.

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