Do Patents Help or Hurt Drug Access?

This interview with Dr. Bo Heiden examines the role of intellectual property in moving new medicines from lab to patients amid debates over drug pricing, access, generic competition, and “patent monopoly” narratives. Dr. Heiden of Berkeley’s Eira Initiative, along with Josh and Ashley Sloat of Aurora patents, explore why drug development is uniquely expensive, uncertain, and investment-dependent, and how patents enable financing, collaboration, licensing, and commercialization while preserving a path to generic entry. The discussion covers the history and key ingredients of the U.S. biotech ecosystem, including NIH-funded basic research, Bayh-Dole, venture capital, the FDA, and Hatch-Waxman’s innovation-access bargain. They address claims about evergreening and patent thickets with evidence on market exclusivity and generics, discuss the Supreme Court’s Hikma decision on skinny labels and induced infringement, and close with implications for AI-driven discovery and the evolving GLP-1 landscape. 00:00 Intro 04:15 Mossoff Minute: America's 250th and the Democratization of Innovation 06:07 Bo's background and the Eira Initiative 13:51 Why focus on biopharma, med devices, and life sciences? 16:31 Do patents make drugs more expensive? 24:24 CliffsNotes history of the modern U.S. biotech system 26:56 Bayh-Dole Act and IP ownership 27:53 Venture capital,  hospital industry clusters, and the FDA 31:03 Hatch-Waxman Act and generic entry 34:42 "evergreening", "patent thickets", and "patent monopolies" 39:11 What policymakers are getting wrong (innovation AND access) 44:39 Supreme Court's Hikma decision, generics, and skinny labels 49:04 Legal considerations for AI-driven drug discovery 54:18 GLP-1 regulatory and generic landscape 57:12 Closing thoughts 01:00:07 Outro