On September 8, a group of more than 100 national and state-based advocacy organizations sent a letter to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees urging Congress to amend H.R. 9 to preserve protections of the Hatch-Waxman Act and to avoid weakening the patents that sustain medical research. In the letter, advocates argue that the Innovation Act does little to address current abuses in the Inter Partes Review (IPR) process that threaten the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act (the Hatch-Waxman Act) and the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA). According to the letter: The Inter Partes Review (IPR) proceedings were intended to be a more efficient way to address patent challenges, but IPR opened the door to abuses that threaten the unique and specialized mechanisms under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act (commonly referred to as the Hatch-Waxman Act) and the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act…
↧