Big Pharma Giant Boasts Record-Earnings on Same Day It Files Sham Suit in Latest Ploy to Further Extend Monopoly

(Washington, D.C.) — The Public Innovation Project (PIP) released the following statement today on United Therapeutics’ (UTC) fourth quarter earnings, where the company reported record revenue and expectation-beating earnings.

“Despite marketing itself as a ‘Public Benefit Corporation’ committed to ‘developing novel pharmaceutical therapies,’ United Therapeutics offers a case study in Big Pharma’s abuse of the patent system undermining actual innovation,” said Joshua Lamel, executive director of PIP. “UTC’s record revenue is directly fueled by a patent abuse strategy on the Big Pharma giant’s Treprostinil products that continues to support expectation-busting profits while blocking patient access to medications that could help them achieve better health outcomes.”

“UTC’s boast of record-earnings came the say day the so-called ‘Public Benefit Corporation’ filed a sham lawsuit against their regulator in the latest act of their multi-part strategy to game the system, delay competition and inflict legal costs on would-be competitors to extend the length of their monopoly on the pulmonary hypertension drug,” Lamel continued. “UTC boasting of yet another record quarter of earnings while flagrantly abusing the patent system should drive more attention to this case study in Big Pharma’s greed and add to the momentum in Washington for Congress to crack down on brand name drug companies’ anti-competitive strategies that undermine real innovation and hurt patients.”

UTC has had 37 of 49 patent claims invalidated on their Treprostinil products and, in fact, all the patents in the Treprostinil family listed in the Orange Book have been invalidated by either the U.S. District Court or by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). In December, The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed an earlier decision from the Patent Trial Appeal Board that one of UTC’s Treprostinil patents, ‘793, was invalid.

Learn more about the greed of UTC and its patent strategy that undermines competition and stifles innovation HERE.

Find out more about PIP and our mission HERE.

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