The Trump administration’s lawsuit against Gilead Sciences Inc. over the company’s alleged infringement of government-owned patents for the HIV-prevention drug PrEP could unintentionally lead to higher drug prices, according to attorneys watching the case.
The issue is that the government’s patents don’t cover the drug itself but the regimen that has patients take one pill daily.
Patents like this—that cover process rather than an invention—are controversial because they’re often filed late in a drug’s original patent life by brand-name companies to extend monopolies on their products. These so-called follow-on patents delay the entry of lower-cost generic versions to the market. ...