April 26, 2025
The Pharmaceutical Industry Labor-Management Association (PILMA) is proud to join stakeholders from across the biopharmaceutical and labor communities in recognizing World Intellectual Property Day. Today is an opportunity to reflect on the pivotal role of intellectual property (IP) rights in not only powering innovation and the development of new cures but also creating and sustaining high-quality, skilled union jobs.
Many of the high-tech, state-of-the-art facilities where lifesaving medicines are developed and manufactured are built with union labor. Thanks to robust IP protections, the United States continues to be a bastion of innovation and a world leader in the development of new therapies ¬– treating everything from common chronic diseases to rare genetic conditions.
Today is also a reminder that we must continue to ensure U.S. IP rights are protected from misguided attempts by policymakers to weaken them under the guise of promoting access and affordability to medicines. Rather than weaken the carefully balanced system that has been the cornerstone of American medical innovation, policymakers should work to encourage the development of life-saving treatments by removing harmful policies that threaten the current and future innovation.
The bipartisan Ensuring Pathways to Innovative Cures (EPIC) Act is an opportunity to fix the misguided “pill penalty,” which discourages investment in small-molecule treatments – the medications that make up more than 90% of U.S. prescriptions – and jeopardizes thousands of highly skilled union construction jobs supported by this innovation ecosystem. It’s time for Congress to act and promote smart, balanced policy that supports innovation and strengthens the workforce behind it
On this World IP Day, let’s recommit to our mission of promoting a vibrant biopharmaceutical industry while working to find durable solutions to reducing prescription drug costs while preserving the IP rights that enable innovation to thrive.
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