Patients and patents: A grassroots education campaign on pharmaceutical patents

Patients and patents: A grassroots education campaign on pharmaceutical patents

Millions of people living with chronic and life-threatening diseases – such as arthritis, cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and multiple sclerosis – face rising prescription drug costs that put vital medications out of reach. One major driver of these high costs is the misuse of patent protections by some original-brand pharmaceutical companies to delay competition from more affordable generics and biosimilars.

Patient organizations from three countries – Arthritis Consumer Experts (Canada), the Australian Patient Advocacy Alliance (Australia), and Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation (USA) – today officially launched a new international campaign called "Patients and patents”. The campaign aims to raise awareness on how patents can benefit and potentially harm patients and healthcare systems – especially for chronic disease management that requires timely access to essential advanced therapy medications.

What the campaign is about

The “Patients and patents” campaign is a grassroots education initiative focused on helping patients, health care providers, and the public understand how pharmaceutical patents work. When used responsibly, patents encourage innovation and ensure patients receive new and improved treatments. But when misused to extend patent protection – through tactics like “evergreening” or “patent thicketing” – they can extend monopolies on original-brand medications and delay access to more affordable treatment options and strain health system budgets.

People living with chronic diseases, like inflammatory arthritis, are particularly affected by these practices, resulting in patients continuing to pay for medications at the “patented price” rather than at much more affordable off-patent prices for generic and biosimilar medications (up to 95% less for generics and 30-50% less for biosimilars). For healthcare systems, it can mean potentially losing out on billions of dollars in savings.

How you can get involved

Patients and organizations can learn more by accessing the free resources on the “Patients and patents” website:

All resources can be downloaded, printed, and shared. The campaign also includes a series of ready-to-use social media posts for Facebook, Instagram, X, BlueSky, and LinkedIn as well as the hashtag #Patientsandpatents to amplify the message.

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