Senator questions Merck over patent strategy for blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda
A U.S. senator is pressing pharmaceutical giant Merck over its patenting and pricing practices for the blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda, escalating congressional scrutiny of industry strategies that can delay lower-cost rivals from reaching the market.
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), ranking member of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care, said that Merck and other drug companies often file excessive patents to extend their monopolies and keep more affordable versions of their pricey drugs out of reach. In a letter to Merck CEO Robert Davis, the lawmaker asked the company to detail patent actions connected to both the Keytruda intravenous version, which has been on the market for over a decade, and its new injectable version of the drug, which launched last year.
“I continue to have serious concerns about how Merck’s anti-competitive practices have boosted profits at the expense of patients,” Hassan wrote in her letter, sent this week. She added she has noted in previous years how “these kinds of patent gimmicks have allowed Merck to delay other companies from selling lower cost versions of this medication, all while raising the price of Keytruda in the U.S. year after year.”
Hassan cited a finding from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ recent Cancer Calculus investigation, which showed that Merck’s new injectable version of Keytruda “could help Merck generate billions of dollars and delay competition into the 2030s.”
https://www.icij.org/investigations/cancer-calculus/merck-keytruda-cancer-drug-price/
https://www.icij.org/investigations/cancer-calculus/keytruda-evergreening-patents-merck/
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