I mean they either meet the threshold for a patent or not?
And Humira is one of the first anti-TNF drugs out there and has been approved for over a dozen different diseases (each one supported by the clinical trial the company ran).
I’m not surprised there are so many parents or they ran for so long since the runway for the drug has been spectacular.
It would be better if there were no additional patents on expanded scope of treatments or alternative dosage forms.
So the patent covering using the compound for treatment always expires at the soonest possible time after filing, and the most predictable time.
And allow only one additional patent per innovative technique of manufacturing the compound.
Having hundreds of patents to encumber a single compound for excessive decades is dystopian in shkreli-ish proportions.
Why would you spend hundreds of millions on clinical trials if you can't recoup the cost?
And long ago abandoned development when this criteria is not likely to be met.
And no, many drugs never recoup costs before the patent runs out. Even the ones that make it to market.
On the one hand its great if you have strong IP protection, on the other you (as in the US taxpayer and medical insurance subscriber) ends up paying eye-watering sums for medicines long after the rest of the world has moved on to generics.