National IP Month: Congress Must Protect the Patents That Power Medical Innovation

This National Intellectual Property Month—October 2026—the Trade Alliance to Promote Prosperity (TAPP) celebrates the scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs, and companies whose discoveries are producing new medicines and giving patients hope.

Few sectors depend more on strong intellectual property protections than America’s biopharmaceutical industry. Developing a new medicine can take years of research and substantial investment, with no guarantee of success. Patent protections provide innovators with the certainty necessary to take those risks, attract investment, and pursue the next generation of treatments and cures.

That is why TAPP believes Congress must defend America’s patent system and reject policies that weaken pharmaceutical intellectual property rights.

Efforts to undermine patents in the name of lowering healthcare costs risk producing the opposite long-term result: reducing incentives to invest in new medicines. Policymakers can address affordability and access without diminishing the intellectual property protections that make medical breakthroughs possible in the first place.

Strong patents also help America compete globally. At a time when countries such as China are investing aggressively in biotechnology, weakening U.S. intellectual property protections could jeopardize American leadership in one of the world’s most important industries.

During National IP Month, TAPP urges Congress to reaffirm a simple principle: America should protect the innovators willing to invest, experiment, and take risks to develop tomorrow’s medicines.

Protecting pharmaceutical patents means protecting American innovation—and the patients waiting for the next breakthrough.