TAPP Urges U.S. Representatives to Protect IP and Oppose “Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act through Promoting Competition Act of 2021”

The Trade Alliance to Promote Prosperity has written a letter to members of the U.S. House of Representatives, urging them to protect intellectual property and oppose H.R. 2873, the “Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act through Promoting Competition Act of 2021,” which would aid and abet Federal Trade Commission attacks on American businesses and grant FTC Chair Lina Kahn unprecedented power for an unelected bureaucrat. The bill is sponsored by Rep. David Cicilline (D – Rhode Island) and cosponsored by Reps. Ken Buck (R – Colorado), Carolyn Maloney (D – New York), and Jerrold Nadler (D – New York), and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D – District of Columbia).

In the letter, TAPP wrote the following:

H.R. 2873 would effectively empower the FTC to oversee American prescription drug innovation and development and grant them the ability to quash drug innovations. If passed, this legislation would come at the peril of American patients awaiting innovations to address their serious suffering from medical conditions and diseases that could otherwise be treated or cured.

Under H.R. 2873, follow-on innovations that Americans have traditionally taken for granted—including new drug formulations, new drug delivery methods, drug versions with fewer side effects, drug regimens that are easier to follow, drug versions that are easier to take, etc. would suddenly be at risk of facing unreasonable antitrust scrutiny, red tape, and regulation by the FTC. It is important to note that a World Health Organization (WHO) report showed that 63% of drugs on the WHO’s Essential Drug List were follow-ons, and 33% of follow-on drugs were given a priority designation by the FDA, which means that they, “if approved, would be significant improvements in the safety or effectiveness of the treatment, diagnosis, or prevention of serious conditions when compared to standard applications.”  

Sir James Whyte Black, winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Medicine said, “The most fruitful basis for the discovery of a new drug is to start with an old drug.” H.R. 2873 would discourage pharmaceutical innovators from pursuing this fruitful path.

H.R. 2873 would dramatically expand antitrust regulations in favor of declaring violations against pharmaceutical innovators—almost no follow-on product or innovation could pass the legislation’s three-part test, which puts the onus on companies to rebut presumptions of anti-competitive activity. Existing intellectual property protections would become uncertain, and this would have a chilling effect on pharmaceutical innovation—again, at the peril of American patients with unmet medical needs who are desperately waiting and hoping for new treatments and cures.

For these reasons, we at the Trade Alliance to Promote Prosperity urge you to oppose H.R. 2873—the bill would harm American businesses, empower unelected bureaucrats to make life-and-death decisions best left to innovators, and put patients at risk. The bill is unsalvageable.