To Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee:
As young adults living with chronic medical conditions, we write today to inform you why we oppose S. 2140 - the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act, which your committee will hear on Tuesday, January 23. We are a patient advocacy group that has refused all funding from the private healthcare industry, ensuring our voices represent our experiences as young adult patients. Central to our belief, the patent system should incentivize innovation and competition and allow patients timely access to biosimilars and generics.
We oppose the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act, which allows predatory companies to exploit patent eligibility and harm efforts to treat health conditions. More specifically, the legislation would:
Eliminate all judicial exceptions to patent eligibility.
Enable any invention or discovery that can be claimed as a “useful process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter, or any useful improvement thereof,” is eligible for patent protection, except under specific provisions.
Asserts that patent eligibility should no longer be determined with consideration of Sections 102, 203, or 112 of Title 35.
In summary, if PERA gains momentum and passes, pharmaceutical companies will be allowed to get patents they cannot get today. We will see more monopolization of treatments, blocking crucial competition. The legislation would enable companies to charge higher prices for medical tests and treatments. It would impede innovation that we rely on as young adults living with lifelong conditions.
We need innovation and affordability. In addition to the physical, emotional, and social tolls of such severe, complex conditions, too often, the lifesaving medications we need to survive are unaffordable. We look forward to sharing our perspectives further and to your continued prioritization of the current and next generation of Americans.
Sincerely,
The Generation Patient Team