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Press Release

GPhA Urges the House to Send “The America Invents Act” Back to the Drawing Board

WASHINGTON, D.C. (JUNE 23, 2011) – The Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA) today reiterated its opposition to H.R. 1249, “The America Invents Act”, following the U.S. House of Representatives’ failure to correct a fatal flaw in the bill.

“As the number of voices opposing this bill continues to grow, the House should take a step back and start this process over,” GPhA Executive Director Bob Billings said. “As it stands, this bill will hurt consumer access to affordable medicines and undermine the integrity of the patent system.”

The current bill grants patent holders that knowingly falsify information in their original patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), or intentionally omit material information in such filings, a mechanism to retroactively correct their filing without any consequences.

The only way to correct this so called “supplemental examination” process is to strike it entirely from the bill or amend it to prevent those that knowingly lie to the PTO from using it. Anything other than those changes endorses deception and falls far short of guaranteeing a fair and honest process.

“This legislation offers a free ride for those looking to mislead and misrepresent the PTO,” Billings said. “While proponents may try to argue that the mechanism provided in the bill merely allows patent holders to correct inadvertent mistakes, what we are talking about here is purposeful lying and any claims to the contrary are simply disingenuous.”

GPhA represents the manufacturers and distributors of finished generic pharmaceuticals, manufacturers and distributors of bulk pharmaceutical chemicals, and suppliers of other goods and services to the generic industry. Generic pharmaceuticals fill 75 percent of the prescriptions dispensed in the U.S. but consume just 22 percent of the total drug spending. Additional information is available at gphaonline.org.

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