Some Companies Modify Old Drugs to Get New Patents

W A S H I N G T O N, July 24 -- A drug company’s financial lifeline is a patent — the exclusive right to sell a drug it created.

However, a group funded by the government and managed care companies says drug makers manipulate the system to increase their profits.

An analysis of six bills passed over the last 20 years shows there are ways to extend that lifeline.

“They’ve increased the patent life by at least 50 percent, taking it from just over eight years to 12 to 13 years,” says Nancy Chockley with the National Institute of Health Care Management, which authored the report, Prescription Drugs and Intellectual Property Protection: Finding the Right Balance Between Access and Innovation.

“What that has meant for American consumers is that they’re being denied access to generic drugs for a longer period of time,” she says.

Alan Holmer, a drug industry representative, says strong patent laws are in the best interest of patients because they provide incentives to drug companies to discover and develop new cures and treatments for illnesses like Alzheimer’s, heart disease, stroke, cancer and dozens of other life-threatening ailments.

“It’s because of these strong patent laws that the U.S. by far leads the world in the number of new medicines that we’re able to bring to market,” says Holmer, head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Not Entirely New

The drugs being patented, ABCNEWS has learned, are not always entirely new.

Companies about to lose their exclusivity frequently produce slightly modified versions of drugs to win brand-new patents. The report says almost two-thirds of drugs approved in the 1990s contained “existing active ingredients.”

Abbott Labs, for example, is about to lose a patent on Calcijex, a drug for kidney-dialysis patients. It recently received a 15-year patent on a drug Abbott called superior to Calcijex. An Abbott Labs researcher said the new drug, Zemplar, was not similar, but a “complete breakthrough” drug for kidney-dialysis patients.