U.S. Patent System Crimps Drug Innovation for Toughest Diseases

The U.S. patent system discourages drugmakers from pursuing the hardest problems in medicine, according to a paper to be published next year in the Washington Law Review.

The current approach of starting the clock on patent life when the application is filed, while drugs are still in early-stage clinical trials, leads to shorter periods of patent exclusivity. That’s despite steps taken by Congress to add years at the end of a patent term to make up for some of the time spent in the development stage, according to an analysis by authors Erika Lietzan and Kristina M.L. Acri.

There has ...