De­moc­rats pe­ti­tion US patent of­fice to probe Mer­ck­'s new Keytru­da re­quests

De­moc­rats in both the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and the Sen­ate are ask­ing the US Patent and Trade­mark Of­fice (PTO) to take a clos­er look at Mer­ck’s pend­ing patents for its megablock­buster can­cer drug Keytru­da.

Sen. Eliz­a­beth War­ren (D-MA)’s of­fice an­nounced Thurs­day that the sen­a­tor, along­side Sen­ate Health com­mit­tee chair Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Reps. Katie Porter (D-CA) and Prami­la Jaya­pal (D-WA), wrote a let­ter to PTO di­rec­tor Kathi Vi­dal on Wednes­day — ask­ing Vi­dal to scru­ti­nize any new patent re­quests from Mer­ck for Keytru­da, which hauled in $20.9 bil­lion last year.

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