US NCL urges changes to pharma patent law

The USA needs to change its laws so that when prescription drugpatents expire, delay tactics which prevent consumers from having access to cheaper generics will not be permitted, according to the US National Consumers League.

While drugmakers should be able to recover their costs in bringing drugs to market through patent protection, when the patent expires "it is unfair and unjustifiable to allow drug manufacturers to keep generics from the market," said NCL president Linda Golodner.

"These stall tactics threaten to wipe out all the savings that should be made available to the public over the next five years as some of our most popular, and expensive, drugs lose their patent protection," said Ms Golodner.