Al­ler­gan’s trib­al treaty in Resta­sis patent fight trig­gers a Con­gres­sion­al don­ny­brook

Phar­ma sto­ries have to have a cer­tain col­or­ful qual­i­ty to swell in­to a full pub­lic scan­dal. Mar­tin Shkre­li had his so­cial me­dia tantrums to keep him ra­dioac­tive. My­lan was ac­cused of rip­ping off schools by lever­ag­ing vul­ner­a­ble kids. And now Al­ler­gan has the casi­no-own­ing Saint Reg­is Mo­hawk Tribe as an al­ly to win the spot­light.

And it’s get­ting hot un­der those lights.

To­day four pow­er­ful De­mo­c­ra­t­ic US sen­a­tors signed off on a scathing let­ter to the pow­ers that be in Con­gress, of­fer­ing a scathing de­nun­ci­a­tion of Al­ler­gan CEO Brent Saun­ders’ de­ci­sion to trans­fer the patents it holds on Resta­sis to the tribe and then leas­ing them back on their block­buster med, all af­ter a $13.75 mil­lion pay­day to shift con­trol to a group with sov­er­eign im­mu­ni­ty — which they be­lieve will pro­tect them from an un­fair IPR chal­lenge.

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