For nearly 20 years, I-MAK has worked to erode the system that fuels medical innovation – using flawed data, misleading claims, and media influence to push policies that endanger future lives.
The Truth About I-MAK
“[I-MAK] does not transparently disclose or explain its underlying data, and the data differs by orders of magnitude from public sources like the US Orange Book and court filings.”
Thom Tillis
United States Senator
“When I-MAK’s patent numbers and market exclusivity periods were objectively assessed by the USPTO with the assistance of the FDA, the USPTO neither replicated nor confirmed any of I‑MAK’s patent numbers or exclusivity periods…”
Adam Mossoff
Chair, Forum for Intellectual Property, Hudson Institute
“Simply quantifying raw numbers of patents and exclusivities is an imprecise way to measure the intellectual property landscape of a drug product.”
United States Patent and Trademark Office Report
The Truth About Patents
The Myth of
Patent Thickets
The Myth of
Product Hopping
The Myth of
Patent Evergreening
The Truth About Innovation
Medical breakthroughs save lives. Follow-on innovations make treatments safer, more effective, and more accessible. Patent protections make those breakthroughs possible.
“Follow-on biopharmaceutical innovations deliver substantial health and economic benefits by improving the safety and efficacy of existing therapies, addressing unmet patient needs, expanding therapeutic applications, and enhancing adherence.”
Information Technology & Innovation Foundation Report
In the Media
Amgen Attacks Academics’ False Claims About Biologic Patents
“Although not the only example by a longshot, the easiest, most clear example of fiction masquerading as truth comes to us courtesy of the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK), which the Council for Innovation Promotion (C4IP) has recently launched a campaign to expose.”
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Congress Must Consider Accurate Data About Patent Thickets
“The most influential source of these patent thicket theories is the Initiative for Medicines, Access, and Knowledge, or I-MAK … but lawmakers shouldn’t take the group’s claims at face value.”
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Thank drug patents for life-saving breakthroughs. Why weakening laws will stifle innovation
“Without robust patent protections, we wouldn’t have these life-changing drugs at all, let alone be on the cusp of cheap generic alternatives.”
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Patent Thickets, Evergreening and Product Hopping: Falsehoods vs. Fact
“The concept of evergreening is absolutely false. You cannot by law extend the life of a particular patent.”
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Other Resources
Fact Check:
Weakening the patent system won’t lower prices for patients. It would undermine medical progress.
"In a recent STAT article, I-MAK CEO Tahir Amin argues that abuses of the patent system are leading to higher drug costs. But this gets the logic exactly backwards — it is because of the patent system that the United States is the world leader in biopharmaceutical innovation."
Fact Check:
Debunking Myths About Patents in the Pharmaceutical Industry
“A close examination of the arguments made by [I-MAK and others] reveals that they fundamentally misrepresent the vital role patents play in promoting drug innovation without inhibiting generic entry.”
Fact Check:
Misguided Attacks on Follow-On Patents Would Harm Patients
“Follow-on patents have no effect on the lifespan of other patents – meaning that generic and biosimilar competition can still enter the market when the original patent expires.”
Debunking Patent Disinformation:
Insights from the USPTO’s Drug Patent and Exclusivity Study
“The USPTO’s study refutes the common narrative that biopharma companies abuse patent protections to extend market exclusivity and reduce generic competition.”
Blog:
Why Continued Innovation Matters: Keytruda and the “Product Hopping” Myth
"Keytruda's new formulation is not a case of patent abuse, but a demonstration of why patent rights matter: to fuel improvements that make life-saving medicines more humane, accessible, and sustainable for patients."