FTC tar­gets more drug patents, go­ing af­ter obe­si­ty, di­a­betes and asth­ma med­ica­tions

An­titrust reg­u­la­tors at the Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion ex­pand­ed their cam­paign on what they call “junk” patents, send­ing a new round of warn­ing let­ters to drug com­pa­nies about their prod­ucts for obe­si­ty, di­a­betes, asth­ma, COPD and se­vere hy­po­glycemia.

The new round of let­ters tar­gets 20 prod­ucts and fol­lows a push by the FTC last year to go af­ter patents on asth­ma in­halers, ep­i­neph­rine pens and oth­er prod­ucts. In re­sponse to last year’s cam­paign, many of those patents were pulled by the com­pa­nies.

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