Two Government Agencies’ Collaboration Threatens the Future of Intellectual Property

Earlier this month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a joint listening session, the latest in their recent collaborative efforts jumpstarted by an executive order issued by President Biden.

The ostensible purpose of this collaboration is to ensure that essential prescription drugs remain affordable and available for Americans who need them. This is a noble goal, and one that America should continue pursuing. However, the proposed method of achieving this goal actually would harm patients, doctors, and the collective American healthcare infrastructure.

The USPTO and the FDA have attempted to advocate for patients, but the effort has ballooned into a full-blown attack on intellectual property. The plan includes stripping away the rights and privileges afforded to medical and pharmaceutical innovators and includes seriously diluting the power of the patent.  

Without the profit incentive that comes with a patent, companies will no longer have an incentive or motivator to produce lifesaving cures and medicines. This would put American patients at risk and would have a disastrous effect on the medical community.

The government should be bolstering medical innovators and allowing them room to produce these lifesaving medicines. We know from recent experience that this encouragement aided in a quick discovery of COVID-19 vaccines that have helped millions of people and helped the world escape from the pandemic. Without the quick work of medical innovators, incentivized by patents and profits, there is no telling when a vaccine would have come.  

It seems that the USPTO and FDA have already made up their minds in regards to these issues, without taking all the facts into account. Government bureaucrats should not be restricting access to medicine.

There was hardly a diversity of opinion at this joint meeting. USPTO’s lineup of panelists included at least six of the speakers represented groups and organization supported by John and Laura Arnold. Noting T1 International, I-MAK, Generation Patient and Patients for Affordable Drugs are all funded by Arnold Ventures.

The USPTO and FDA must ensure that more voices are being heard so that reason will prevail.

TAPP urges the USPTO and FDA to consider options that allow the greatest innovation and incentives to the scientists who discover the miracle cures that we have come to enjoy and expect.