The legislation, entitled the Independent Innovator and Repurposing Act, is being co-sponsored by Representatives Joaquin Castro and Randy Forbes. The bill intends to incentivize research and development for new treatments by encouraging ‘independent innovators to pursue drug repurposing research and develop new treatments and cures by providing appropriate intellectual property protections for those innovations, and for other purposes’.

The bill would allow sponsors of biological products to extend patent terms on methods of using a biological product by five years from the original expiration date of the patent, including any patent term adjustment. This will, however, only apply when the product is approved for a new use and the sponsor is not affiliated with (or the same as) the original sponsor of the product.

Such an approach is already being used within industry and government by sharing compound libraries in order to screen for potentially useful compounds. However, this bill differs in that it focuses on already-approved products.

While the bill would apply to all future products, it would also be retroactive to all products approved in the last 10 years that meet its terms.

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