We Need Progress, Not Just The Progress Congress Will ‘Pay For’
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CHICAGO – JULY 23: Lipitor tablets sit in a tray at a Pharmacy July 23, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois. … More Pfizer, the world’s biggest drug maker and manufacturer of the cholesterol drug Lipitor, said today its second quarter profit rose to $2.78 billion. Lipitor is the world’s top-selling drug. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) Getty Images Congress is considering reducing the amount of time that pharmaceutical drugs will be patent protected. Stop and think about that. Congress is presently fiddling with the tax code to “pay for” the tax priorities of certain members. This is taking place as members of Congress work to extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Supposedly the path to getting it extended includes “paying for it” with the reduction of patent protection for pharmaceutical drugs. Something’s very wrong with this picture. To see why, it’s useful to contemplate Revolution Medicine’s daraxonrasib. The drug is making it possible for patients to survive one of the most consistent modern killers of all, pancreatic cancer. Away from daraxonrasib, AnaptysBio and GlaxoSmithKline’s dostarlimab is making it possible for doctors to treat cancer without chemotherapy, radiation and the cutting out of infected organs. What’s important about this broadly is that the innovators developing crucial drugs for patients very much desire patent protection. So, while wise minds can and will continue to debate the value of patent protection, let’s forget debates for now and just think about possible changes in the tax code with drugmakers well in mind. Major pharmaceutical companies want the patent protection given the immense costs associated with developing lifesaving and life-enhancing drugs. Which means a reduction in the number of years of patent protection to “pay for” other tax priorities reads as offensive and wrongheaded no matter one’s position on patent protection. Progress on the…
