NewsDialy

A federal court will test whether buying a drug patent application can extend a monopoly illegally

8/31/2026

Buying a patent application, a government filing that claims rights to an invention before the patent is officially issued, may be enough to cross the line into anticompetitive behavior.

That question sits at the center of a federal lawsuit between a large health insurer and Amgen, the big biotech company.

Federal Trade Commission has entered on the insurer's side, arguing the practice deserves attention because of antitrust concerns. Drugmakers have long been accused of manipulating the U.S.

patent system to push rivals out of the market.