Carvedilol could be the poster child for how to lower drug prices. Since 2007, more than 20 million patients with cardiovascular conditions have enjoyed generic versions of the popular beta-blocker, which cost 2 cents a dose compared with $4.81 for the brand-name product. Patents on the drug Coreg, dating back to 1978, have long expired, enabling these price-saving generics.
Yet this year, a federal jury deemed one generic carvedilol maker in violation of a patent to the tune of $235 million. The possibility that a patent can cut off a 15-year-old generic market on a half-century-old drug and raise prices by nearly 24,000% is an alarming development at a time that health care costs are already skyrocketing.
Many have debated the role of patents in the present drug pricing crisis, but the carvedilol case highlights a certain type of problem patent, one that exploits safety regulations and federal drug laws to block competition. Brand-name drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline’s patent in the case was a “method of use” patent, which covers not the drug itself but its use in treating a disease or condition. These can pop up years after the initial patents on a drug have expired.
