US Senators unveil details of patent reform agreement; gets mixed reaction from pharma industry

Leaders of the US Senate Judiciary Committee last week announced details of an agreement on long-pending legislation to make reforms to the nation's patent system. The new bill ostensibly makes significant steps toward resolving longstanding differences in legislative efforts to modernize US law for patent quality and efficiency, and make it more compatible with international laws.

The new bill, referred to as the managers' amendment, is being touted as providing a critical boost to innovation, and has been welcomed by the research-based pharmaceutical industry but not the generic drugs sector (see later in this story). The bill must go to the full Senate for a vote, and must be passed in the House of Representatives as well.

This is the third consecutive Congress in which Senator Patrick Leahy (Democrat, Vermont), the chairman of the panel, and Senator Orrin Hatch (Republican, Utah), a former committee chairman, have introduced patent reform legislation. A bipartisan majority of the Committee advanced the legislation last April. In the months since, Senators Leahy, Hatch and Jeff Sessions (Republican, Alabama), the Committee's ranking Republican, and Chuck Schumer (Democrat, New York), Jon Kyl (Republican, Arizona) and Ted Kaufman (Democrat, Delaware) have continued to work toward an agreement to make the legislation ready for Senate consideration.