Merck is launching a patent-protected injectable version of Keytruda before biosimilars of the IV version of Keytruda enter the market. Swipe to see reactions to the recent @nytimes.com story on Merck's product hopping scheme.

“Merck is just the latest in a long line of drug companies that have introduced new versions of their medicines that allow them to keep charging high prices [to patients] even as their original patents expire.” www.seattletimes.com/nation-world...

1️⃣ Read The New York Time’s new investigation into Merck’s product hop on Keytruda. 2️⃣ Watch the video be published back in May detailing exactly how Merck is doing it.

@nytimes.com investigates Merck’s product hop on the cancer drug Keytruda. “Merck has sought nearly 300 patents related to Keytruda, according to I-MAK. (Merck disputed I-MAK’s count but declined to provide a different figure.)" www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/h...

🚨BREAKING: The New York Times investigates Merck’s product hop on Keytruda.

We have extensive data detailing Merck’s patenting tactics on Keytruda. I will share more here soon.

My team at @imakglobal.bsky.social has been warning for years that Merck would game the patent system to product hop its blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda. Today, the New York Times published an investigation into the company’s tactics. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/h...

Our September newsletter is out! In it, @tahiramin.bsky.social breaks down two bipartisan bills seeking to address patent abuse so medicines can be more affordable for patients 📄The ETHIC Act 📄The Medication Affordability and Patent Integrity Act www.i-mak.org/2025/09/18/s...

A new study in @jama.com by Dongzhe Hong, @seansst5.bsky.social‬, and Reed F. Beall looks at the cost of extended market exclusivities due to patent term extensions and patent gaming. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

“History will not remember how profitable our cures were, only how many were left to die waiting for them.” - Jonathan Lee, B.A., B.S., UC Berkeley www.bcphreview.org/article/1412...

MedPath unpacked key findings from our latest Overpatented, Overpriced report. 📊Read our report: www.i-mak.org/overpatented/ 📄Read MedPath's analysis: trial.medpath.com/news/1926871...

AbbVie used its patent thicket to block six competitors from launching cheaper versions of a $220,000 cancer drug.

SEN. BLUMENTHAL: Do all of you agree that reforms in the patent laws would enable lower costs for consumers? …Yes …Yes …Yes …Yes

NYU Law Professor Daniel Francis is right. A drug company “has every incentive to overlist patents [in the FDA’s Orange Book] because it deters generic entry.” What is a 30-month stay and how do drug companies game it? 🧵

NEWS: Senators @welch.senate.gov (D-VT), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and @klobuchar.senate.gov (D-MN) introduced the Eliminating Thickets to Improve Competition (ETHIC) Act. So, what is the ETHIC Act?🧵

AbbVie offered technical employees iPhones, iPads, and Apple computers as rewards for coming up with new ideas to "increase the patent coverage for Humira."

In a recent FTC listening session, Hans Sauer of BIO suggested that pharma execs don’t coordinate with lawyers to strategically use patents to block competition. I guess he forgot about the Congressional investigation exposing how AbbVie hired McKinsey to do exactly that.

SEN. PETER WELCH (D-VT): For decades, Big Pharma has exploited U.S. courts and the patent system through anticompetitive practices that prevent generic and biosimilar competitors from entering the market, forcing Vermonters to pay more out of pocket for lifesaving drugs www.axios.com/pro/health-c...

Theresa Schliep of @law360.bsky.social reports on the ETHIC Act ⤵️ "[A] report released in April by the Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge, an advocacy group, said the two major pharmaceutical companies behind leading GLP-1 products are leveraging patent thickets to delay competition.”

⌛️ Time is running out to reserve your spot for this upcoming conversation with @tahiramin.bsky.social of @imakglobal.bsky.social! 🔗 RSVP today: attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/522...

How does the U.S. patent system shape drug prices? And who profits? Join us on July 22 at 11AM ET for a virtual conversation hosted by @capitolforum.bsky.social RSVP: register.gotowebinar.com/register/522...

Thank you to The Plus SideZ podcast for having me on to talk about the patent system and how the pharma industry’s abuse of it keeps GLP-1 prices so high.

💊 How does the U.S. patent system shape drug prices? And who profits? Join us Tuesday, July 22 at 11:00 a.m. EDT for more on these topics with @tahiramin.bsky.social, co-founder and CEO of @imakglobal.bsky.social. 🔗 RSVP: attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/522...

Join us! Stop Skyrocketing Drug Prices: A Briefing on Patents and Drug Prices 🗓️ July 30 🕛 12-1PM ET 🏛️ Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2237 Speakers: @tahiramin.bsky.social, Patricia Kelmar, Wayne Brough, and Christy Robinson Hosted by @rstreet.bsky.social and PIRG

Join us on July 15 in Washington DC for The Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy's forum, "A Path to Fair Drug Pricing: Examining Competition, Value, and Access." 🗓️ July 15 🕘 9am - 2:15pm ET 📍 The Center for Total Health www.kpihp.org/ihp_events/a...

NIALL STANAGE: 83% of all Americans, including 84% of Democrats and 89% of Republicans, said in a 2023 poll that Big Pharma’s profits are a major reason why prescription drugs cost so much.

TAHIR AMIN (@tahiramin.bsky.social): I think progress is being made [on drug pricing and patent reform]...Not quick enough…We need to get further upstream to the root of the problem…It’s starting with the drug companies and how they use the patent system. That is what gives them the power.

TAHIR AMIN (@tahiramin.bsky.social): There is a concern on both sides of the aisle that the lack of competition [in the pharma industry] is actually driving prices up.

TAHIR AMIN (@tahiramin.bsky.social): Novo Nordisk spends more on buying back shares and paying off its shareholders than it does on R&D…This idea that [pharma companies] need to charge higher prices so they can do the R&D is actually not entirely true.

TAHIR AMIN (@tahiramin.bsky.social): It’s important for the public to really become more and more in tune with how the [pharma] companies are using the patent system for their own gain and not as it was originally intended…its become an ATM.

Our own @tahiramin.bsky.social joined The Hill’s Niall Stanage to discuss what we uncovered in our latest report.

“We want to expose how the patent system has become a tool to drive the business model and financial gain…It’s a corruption of the patent system” @tahiramin.bsky.social walks through our new Overpatented, Overpriced report with @levernews.com www.levernews.com/drugmakers-s...

ICYMI: @p4adnow.bsky.social highlighted our new Overpatented, Overpriced report in its “Week In Review” newsletter 👉 patientsforaffordabledrugsnow.org/2025/06/20/t...

“Taking advantage of a broken patent system, Big Pharma is making minor tweaks to medications just to keep affordable generics off the market” - @helenwsantoro.bsky.social for @jacobinmag.bsky.social jacobin.com/2025/06/big-...

“Big drugmakers are abusing the drug patent process to generate extra revenue at the cost of patients” - @helenwsantoro.bsky.social for @levernews.com www.levernews.com/drugmakers-s...

Taking advantage of a broken patent system, Big Pharma is making minor tweaks to medications just to keep affordable generics off the market, a new report suggests. They’ve made billions of dollars in the process.

Big drugmakers are abusing the drug patent process to generate extra revenue at the cost of patients, according to a new report. www.levernews.com/drugmakers-s...

Our team at @imakglobal.bsky.social just released two new products. What we’re seeing is a patent system that is giving drug companies far too many ways to extend their monopolies and maximize profits while utterly failing to uphold the social contract it was meant to serve.

🚨NEW: Today we published a new Overpatented, Overpriced report and launched an expanded and updated version of The Drug Patent Book, our searchable database of every patent we've uncovered on many of the most widely-used drugs in the U.S.

Former solicitor of the USPTO Thomas Krause sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee. It’s a critical indictment of a patent system that has lost the ability to distinguish between invention and exploitation.🧵

Btw, Merck is using the PTAB, a mechanism to review wrongly-granted patents, to challenge Halozyme’s patents. Ironically, PhRMA, where Merck is a long-standing member, is lobbying to pass the PREVAIL Act to gut that very mechanism.

“I go to pick up my Rybelsus and it’s $425” Novo Nordisk, the drug company behind the popular GLP-1 drug Rybelsus, is gaming the patent system to monopolize the semaglutide market.

Merck is going to product hop Keytruda this year to prevent cancer patients from switching to cheaper biosimilar versions of the drug. Product hopping is a form of patent abuse. Here’s how it works ⤵️

*One* of the reasons Merck is product hopping Keytruda is to dodge Medicare negotiations. Looks like CMS may close the loophole they planned to exploit. Good. www.barrons.com/articles/mer...

Imbruvica is a cancer treatment that is marketed by AbbVie. It carries a list price of over $220,000 per year. We investigated the patenting strategies around Imbruvica. Here's what we found: 📄195 patent applications have been filed 📄96 patents have been granted

An internal Celgene presentation from 2014. Celgene’s primary patent on Revlimd expired in 2019. Despite that, Celgene estimated it had a 65% chance of extending its Revlimid monopoly in the U.S. until 2026.

Merck is changing the way Keytruda is delivered, from an IV infusion to a subcutaneous injection, so it can thwart biosimilar competition and continue price gouging people with cancer. It's a tactic known as “product hopping" and it's a form of patent abuse. Here’s how it works.

👏 NEWS: The FTC renews challenge of more than 200 improper patent listings www.ftc.gov/news-events/...

Dr. @reshmagar.bsky.social works at a federally qualified health center where she primarily sees patients who are low-income, have Medicaid, are underinsured, or sometimes have no insurance. Watch as she explains the challenges she's facing due to the high price of GLP-1 drugs.

Trulicity is a type 2 diabetes medicine that is marketed by Eli Lilly. It carries a list price of approximately $12,000 per year. We investigated the patenting strategies around Trulicity. Here's what we found: 📄 57 patent applications have been filed 📄 15 patents have been granted