Several Republican senators joined Democrats in calling for reining in a tool that drugmakers use to extend their monopolies.
Republicans and Democrats bashed the technique, called “evergreening,” during a hearing Tuesday on high drug prices in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Evergreening involves a drugmaker making slight modifications to a brand name drug to extend the patent for the drug. A patent extension ensures the drugmaker continues to have a monopoly on sales and prevents a generic drug from entering the market to offer a cheaper alternative.
A key example of evergreening is insulin, a product that has been on the market since the 1920s but does not have a generic alternative.
“This monopoly is being used to protect profits and not patients,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, during the hearing. “It is something that we need to take a look at.”
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., also pushed for clamping down on evergreening.
“I think the evergreening is a big thing and we have to come to a bipartisan agreement where we say where patents end,” he said.
He added that a drugmaker could get a patent for a modification, but the patent on the original product itself would expire and open itself up for generic competition.
Top Democrats on the panel also have called for legislation to fight the practice.
“As long as manufacturers can actively avoid competition we will continue to see little change on drug prices,” said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the committee.
Evergreening was a major focus during the confirmation hearing for Alex Azar, President Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Azar previously ran the U.S. division of drugmaker Eli Lilly, which is one of three makers of insulin.
Azar said he supports tackling drugmakers that “game the system” but faced strong questioning from Democrats on whether he would actively regulate the industry he used to be a part of.
Congress has made some moves to tackle high drug prices, including improving the approval times for generic drugs to foster more competition. However, Democrats have complained that Republicans aren’t willing to support reforms that would include giving Medicare the power to negotiate for lower drug prices.
