Lincoln Network joins Coalition Against Patent Abuse to promote a better health innovation ecosystem

Lincoln Network is excited to be a founding member of the Coalition Against Patent Abuse (CAPA), a broad coalition of think tanks, healthcare providers, consumer groups, and patient advocacy organizations working to address anti-competitive abuses of our patent system. In addition to Lincoln, CAPA membership includes free-market groups such as the R Street Institute, the Institute for Liberty, and the Innovation Defense Foundation.

CAPA’s mission is to fight abuses of the patent system that drive higher drug prices. Its work will include efforts to educate the public, Congress, and other policymakers to provide safe, lower-cost medicines for all Americans.

“In free markets we see prices going down while quality and availability rise for consumers,” said Garrett Johnson, co-founder and executive director of the Lincoln Network. “We don’t see that happening in the market for prescription drugs because the companies that enjoy government-granted monopolies keep prices high for patients, taxpayers, and the payers of healthcare.”

Americans pay up to 65% more for drugs than citizens in other Western countries, largely because of lack of competition and regulatory capture. When affordable, generic medicines are allowed to compete with name-brand drugs, it has been proven to be a potent solution to the rising drug cost problem.

CAPA supports true scientific innovation and believes that preventing patent abuse is a market-based, pro-competitive strategy for solving the problem of stifling prescription drug prices.