Center for American Principles Policy Fellow Patrick Kilbride’s Op-Ed on the importance of strong patent protections for continued medical innovation was published in the Lake Gaston Gazette-Observer.
Kilbride explains that biopharmaceutical innovation does not end when a medicine first receives FDA approval. Continued research can lead to meaningful improvements in formulations, delivery methods, manufacturing processes, dosing, and new therapeutic uses that benefit patients.
The Op-Ed also challenges criticisms of pharmaceutical “patent thickets” and “evergreening,” arguing that follow-on patents protect distinct inventions and improvements rather than simply extending the original patent. Kilbride warns that weakening these protections could discourage investment in the costly and high-risk research necessary to develop new and improved medicines.