March 10, 2020
Contact: Gerard Scimeca, CASE co-founder and Chairman
CASE Statement in Opposition to “No Ban Act” Adoption of Cornyn Amendment:
Consumer Action for a Strong Economy (CASE), issued the following statement today in opposition to the inclusion of the anti-innovation Cornyn Amendment into the No BAN Act legislation:
“Medical innovation is the linchpin of our current healthcare system, without billions of dollars spent each year into the development of new cures and treatments, Americans would have few answers or hope for a better, longer, and healthier life.”
It is distressing, then, to see medical innovation so flagrantly undermined through the inclusion of the Cornyn Amendment in the current debate concerning the No BAN Act (H.R. 2214). This ill-conceived piece of legislation has been set aside in the past, and for good reason. The Cornyn Amendment undermines the patent protections of medical research by empowering the FTC to take action when it merely suspects a drugmaker of seeking patent protections for an anti-competitive advantage. In other words, in a highly-complex industry that is already subject to a strict level of scrutiny to ensure patents are only issued to truly unique and new innovations, the FTC can force a company to have to prove that its invention is truly new and unique. This is both highly unnecessary and disastrous.
Similar language to protect consumers from anti-competitive practices has already been passed in the House, with a more defined scope that complies with traditional remedies of antitrust law, and does not seek to punish innovators with far-reaching inquiries and burdensome requirements to prove their innocence.
The Cornyn Amendment needlessly rewrites the rules of the USPTO, instigating an entirely new set of costly and troublesome burdens that will target legitimate innovations and reformulations that make Americans healthier and reduce the pain and suffering that accompanies a severe medical issue. When innovators are spending billions of dollars and subjecting themselves to up to 10 years of research, development, trials and testing, our rigorous approval process, in combination with the USPTO, already provides an extraordinary level of protection for consumers and our healthcare industry. In a foolish attempt to “save a buck” the Cornyn Amendment will cost us all more than just money in the long run. It must be defeated.
