The Angiomax bill -- does it stand a chance?

According to analyst Andrew Parmentier (Friedman, Billings Ramsey, left), the odds on the Angiomax patent term extension bill passing successfully through all its legislative stages are "still less than 50 per cent". The bill may have had a smooth passage through the House of Representatives but it still has to make it through the Senate and win the signature of the President. "We advise investors not to blindly interpret this event in the House as patent relief for Angiomax," said Parmentier in a note to investors: "we continue to see road-blocks in the Senate" [Source: CNNMonet.com].

Ad hoc bill seeks to restore Angiomax term

Wall Street Politico today carries news of legislative moves in the United States to provide one-off patent term extension for the benefit of a US company -- The Medicines Co -- after the law firm that handled its patent work in 2001 accidentally filed its Bivalirudin (Angiomax) patent extension application one day after the deadline. The company reportedly lost half a billion dollars in sales after generic drug manufacturers entered the market some four years earlier than they might otherwise have done so.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. has explained that

“this small but important change simply gives the [United States Patent and Trademark Office] discretion to accept a late application, within a limited time period, under specific conditions. This change is both good patent policy and good for public health.”

The language of the proposed legislation specifically restricts one subsection to “a drug intended for use in humans that is in the anticoagulant class of drugs”, the class of products to which Angiomax belongs.

The change has yet to be considered by the Senate, and Citizens Against Government Waste have denounced the bill.