Patents Per New Small-Molecule Drug More Than Tripled Since 1990
A study published Monday in JAMA counted the patents attached to small-molecule drugs and found the average has more than tripled over three decades: 2.1 patents for a drug approved in 1990, 6.9 for one approved in 2019. For anyone wondering why cheaper copies take so long to show up, the pile of paper around a single molecule is a reasonable place to start looking. The number is a count, not a verdict on any one patent — but it is a count that only moves one way.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
The count is eye-catching, but the operative mechanism is aggregation. Enough extra patents on one drug can form a patent thicket that delays affordable generics even when the patents don't reflect clinical advances.
Extra patents aren't automatically junk, though. Some cover delivery devices like auto-injectors, or updates to how a drug is used. The fight is about where a tweak stops being an invention.
Both can be true: device design is real engineering, and the same filing can still work as a toll booth on the road to a generic. That is the uncomfortable part of a thicket — no single patent has to be indefensible for the pile to do its job.