Do Drug Patent Challenges Affect Public Health?

This project examines these legal challenges and their effects on the entry of generic drugs and access to medicines.

New drugs extend life and improve its quality. Drug patents provide an incentive to develop new drugs, but patented drugs are often expensive and they block the sale of inexpensive generic copies. Generic firms have grown active in challenging the validity of drug patents over the past two decades, in an effort to enter the market prior to expiration of the patent. These analyses will help inform current policy debates about how well pharmaceutical patent laws and regulations balance innovation and access, and their effect on public health.