Biden Drug Price Pressure on Patent Office Draws Skeptics

The Biden administration’s approach to bring down drug costs by challenging aspects of the U.S. patent system lines up with a push from Democrats and Republicans in Congress, but skeptics say it’s looking in the wrong direction.

President Joe Biden, working through the Food and Drug Administration, has asked the Patent and Trademark Office to reconsider practices often criticized as vehicles for pharmaceutical companies to block generic competition, effectively extending their drug monopolies.

Among the targets: giving drug companies new protections for changes to old inventions.

Critics such as Andrei Iancu, the Trump administration PTO director who backed strong patent ...