STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 3203 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN SENATE January 24, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sens. FERNANDEZ, BROUK, MAY, WEBB -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Health AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to preserving access to affordable drugs The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Article 2-A of the public health law is amended by adding a 2 new title IV to read as follows: 3 TITLE IV 4 PRESERVING ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE DRUGS 5 Section 282. Definitions. 6 283. Preserving access to affordable drugs. 7 § 282. Definitions. For the purposes of this title, the following 8 terms shall have the following meanings: 9 1. "ANDA" shall mean abbreviated new drug application as described by 10 505(j) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, 21 U.S.C. 335(j). 11 2. "ANDA filer" shall mean a party that owns or controls an ANDA filed 12 with the federal food and drug administration or has the exclusive 13 rights under that ANDA to distribute the ANDA product. 14 3. "Agreement" shall mean anything that would constitute an agreement 15 under state law. 16 4. "Agreement resolving or settling a patent infringement claim" 17 includes any agreement that is entered into within thirty days of the 18 resolution or the settlement of the claim, or any other agreement that 19 is contingent upon, provides a contingent condition for, or is otherwise 20 related to the resolution or settlement of the claim. This shall 21 include, but is not limited to, the following: 22 (a) Any agreement required to be provided to the federal trade commis- 23 sion or the antitrust division of the United States Department of 24 Justice under the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modern- 25 ization Act of 2003, Pub. L. No. 108-173; 26 (b) Any agreement between a biosimilar or interchangeable product 27 applicant and a reference product sponsor under the Biologics Price EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD00058-01-5
S. 3203 2 1 Competition and Innovation Act of 2009, Pub. L. No. 111-148, that 2 resolves patent claims between the applicant and sponsor. 3 5. "Biosimilar biological product application filer" shall mean a 4 party that owns or controls a biosimilar biological product application 5 filed with the federal food and drug administration pursuant to section 6 351(k) of the Public Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 262(k), for licensure 7 of a biological product as biosimilar to, or interchangeable with, a 8 reference product, or that has the exclusive rights under the applica- 9 tion to distribute the biosimilar biological product. 10 6. "NDA" shall mean a new drug application. 11 7. "Nonreference drug filer" shall mean either: 12 (a) An ANDA filer; 13 (b) A company that seeks an abbreviated approval pathway for its drug 14 product under 505(b)(2) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, 21 15 U.S.C. 355(b)(2); or 16 (c) A biosimilar biological product application filer, or company 17 seeking FDA approval for a biosimilar under 42 U.S.C. 262. 18 8. "Nonreference drug product" shall mean the product to be manufac- 19 tured under an ANDA or an application filed under section 505(b)(2) of 20 the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, 21 U.S.C. 355(b), that is the 21 subject of the patent infringement claim, a biosimilar biological prod- 22 uct that is the product to be manufactured under the biosimilar biolog- 23 ical product application that is the subject of the patent infringement 24 claim, or both. 25 9. "Patent infringement" shall mean infringement of any patent or of 26 any filed patent application, extension, reissue, renewal, division, 27 continuation, continuation in part, reexamination, patent term restora- 28 tion, patents of addition, and extensions thereof. 29 10. "Patent infringement claim" shall mean any allegation made to a 30 nonreference drug filer, whether or not included in a complaint filed 31 with a court of law, that its nonreference drug product or application 32 infringes any patent held by, or exclusively licensed to, the reference 33 drug holder. 34 11. "Reference drug holder" shall mean either: 35 (a) A brand holder that is any of the following: 36 (i) The holder of an approved NDA for a drug product application filed 37 under section 505(b) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, 21 38 U.S.C. 355(b); 39 (ii) A person owning or controlling enforcement of the patent listed 40 in the approved drug products with therapeutic equivalence evaluations 41 in connection with the NDA; or 42 (iii) The predecessors, subsidiaries, divisions, groups, and affil- 43 iates controlled by, controlling, or under common control with, any of 44 the entities described in subparagraph (i) or (ii) of this paragraph, 45 with control to be presumed by direct or indirect share ownership of 46 fifty percent or greater, as well as the licensees, licensors, succes- 47 sors, and assigns of each of those entities; or 48 (b) A biological product license holder, which shall mean any of the 49 following: 50 (i) The holder of an approved biological product license application 51 for a biological drug product under section 351(a) of the Public Health 52 Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 262(a); 53 (ii) A person owning or controlling enforcement of any patents that 54 claim the biological product that is the subject of the approved biolog- 55 ical patent license application; or
S. 3203 3 1 (iii) The predecessors, subsidiaries, divisions, groups, and affil- 2 iates controlled by, controlling, or under common control with, any of 3 the entities described in subparagraph (i) or (ii) of this paragraph, 4 with control to be presumed by direct or indirect share ownership of 5 fifty percent or greater, as well as the licensees, licensors, succes- 6 sors, and assigns of each of those entities. 7 12. "Reference drug product" shall mean the product to be manufactured 8 by the reference drug holder and includes both branded drugs of the NDA 9 holder and the biologic drug product of the biologic product license 10 applicant. 11 13. "Statutory exclusivity" shall mean those prohibitions on the 12 approval of drug applications under clauses (ii) through (iv) of section 13 505(c)(3)(E), section 527 or section 505A of the Federal Food, Drug, and 14 Cosmetic Act, 21 U.S.C. 355(c)(3)(E), on the licensing of biological 15 product applications under section 262(k)(7) of Title 42 of the United 16 States Code or section 262(m)(2) or (3) of Title 42 of the United States 17 Code. 18 § 283. Preserving access to affordable drugs. 1. (a) Except as 19 provided in paragraph (c) of this subdivision, an agreement resolving or 20 settling, on a final or interim basis, a patent infringement claim, in 21 connection with the sale of a pharmaceutical product, shall be presumed 22 to have anticompetitive effects and shall be a violation of this section 23 if both of the following apply: 24 (i) A nonreference drug filer receives anything of value from another 25 company asserting patent infringement, including, but not limited to, an 26 exclusive license or a promise that the brand company will not launch an 27 authorized generic version of its brand drug; and 28 (ii) The nonreference drug filer agrees to limit or forego research, 29 development, manufacturing, marketing, or sales of the nonreference drug 30 filer's product for any period of time. 31 (b) As used in subparagraph (i) of paragraph (a) of this subdivision, 32 "anything of value" shall be interpreted broadly to include any type of 33 consideration, value or benefit a reference drug holder or nonreference 34 drug filer could possibly obtain from the agreement. "Anything of value" 35 shall not include a settlement of patent infringement claims in which 36 the consideration granted by the reference drug holder to the nonrefer- 37 ence drug filer as part of the resolution or settlement consists of only 38 one or more of the following: 39 (i) The right to market the competing product in the United States 40 before the expiration of either: 41 (A) A patent that is the basis for the patent infringement claim; or 42 (B) A patent right or other statutory exclusivity that would prevent 43 the marketing of the drug; 44 (ii) A covenant not to sue on a claim that the nonreference drug prod- 45 uct infringes a United States patent; 46 (iii) Compensation for saved reasonable future litigation expenses of 47 the reference drug holder but only if both of the following are true: 48 (A) The total compensation for saved litigation expenses is reflected 49 in budgets that the reference drug holder documented and adopted at 50 least six months before the settlement; and 51 (B) The compensation shall not exceed the lower of the following: 52 (1) Seven million five hundred thousand dollars; or 53 (2) Five percent of the revenue that the nonreference drug filer 54 projected or forecasted it would receive in the first three years of 55 sales of its version of the reference drug documented at least twelve 56 months before the settlement. If no projections or forecasts are avail-
S. 3203 4 1 able, the compensation shall not exceed two hundred fifty thousand 2 dollars; 3 (iv) An agreement by the reference drug holder not to interfere with 4 the nonreference drug filer's ability to secure and maintain regulatory 5 approval to market the nonreference drug product or an agreement to 6 facilitate the nonreference drug filer's ability to secure and maintain 7 regulatory approval to market the nonreference drug product; or 8 (v) An agreement resolving a patent infringement claim in which the 9 reference drug holder forgives the potential damages accrued by a 10 nonreference drug filer for an at-risk launch of the nonreference drug 11 product that is the subject of that claim. 12 (c) Parties to an agreement are not in violation of paragraph (a) of 13 this subdivision if they can demonstrate by clear and convincing 14 evidence that either of the following are met: 15 (i) The value received by the nonreference drug filer described in 16 subparagraph (i) of paragraph (a) of this subdivision is a fair and 17 reasonable compensation solely for other goods or services that the 18 nonreference drug filer has promised to provide; or 19 (ii) The agreement has directly generated procompetitive benefits and 20 the procompetitive benefits of the agreement outweigh the anticompet- 21 itive effects of the agreement. 22 2. In determining whether the parties to the agreement have met their 23 burden under paragraph (c) of subdivision one of this section, a court 24 of competent jurisdiction shall not consider any of the following: 25 (a) That entry into the marketplace could not have occurred until the 26 expiration of the relevant patent exclusivity or that the agreement's 27 provision for entry of the nonreference drug product before the expira- 28 tion of any patent exclusivity means that the agreement is procompet- 29 itive within the meaning of subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (c) of subdi- 30 vision one of this section; 31 (b) That any patent is enforceable and infringed by the nonreference 32 drug filer in the absence of a final adjudication binding on the filer 33 of those issues; 34 (c) That the agreement caused no delay in entry of the nonreference 35 drug filer's drug product because of the lack of Federal Food and Drug 36 Administration (FDA) approval of that or of another nonreference drug 37 product; or 38 (d) That the agreement caused no harm or delay due to the possibility 39 that the nonreference drug filer's drug product might infringe some 40 patent that has not been asserted against the nonreference drug filer or 41 that is not subject to a final and binding adjudication on that filer as 42 to the patent's scope, enforceability, and infringement. 43 3. In determining whether the parties to the agreement have met their 44 burden under paragraph (c) of subdivision one of this section, a court 45 of competent jurisdiction shall presume that the relevant product market 46 is that market consisting of the reference drug of the company alleging 47 patent infringement and the drug product of the nonreference drug filer 48 accused of infringement and any other biological product that is 49 licensed as biosimilar or is an AB-rated generic to the reference prod- 50 uct. 51 4. (a) This section shall not modify, impair, limit, or supersede the 52 applicability of the antitrust laws of the state pursuant to article 53 twenty-two of the general business law, unfair competition laws of the 54 state pursuant to article twenty-two-A of the general business law or 55 the availability of damages or remedies provided therein. This section 56 shall not modify, impair, limit, or supersede the right of any drug
S. 3203 5 1 company applicant to assert claims or counterclaims against any person, 2 under the antitrust laws or other laws relating to unfair competition of 3 the federal antitrust law or state law. 4 (b) If any provision of this subdivision, an amendment made to this 5 subdivision, or the application of any provision or amendment to any 6 person or circumstance is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder of 7 this subdivision, the amendments made to this subdivision, and the 8 application of the provisions of this subdivision or amendments to any 9 person or circumstance shall not be affected. 10 5. (a)(i) Each person that violates or assists in the violation of 11 this section shall forfeit and pay to the state a civil penalty suffi- 12 cient to deter violations of this section, as follows: 13 (A) If the person who violated this section received any value due to 14 that violation, an amount up to three times the value received by the 15 party that is reasonably attributable to the violation of this section, 16 or twenty million dollars, whichever is greater; or 17 (B) If the violator has not received anything of value as described in 18 this subparagraph, an amount up to three times the value given to other 19 parties to the agreement reasonably attributable to the violation of 20 this section, or twenty million dollars. 21 (C) For purposes of this subdivision, "reasonably attributable to the 22 violation" shall be determined by the state's share of the market for 23 the brand drug at issue in the agreement. 24 (ii) Any penalty described in subparagraph (i) of this paragraph shall 25 accrue only to the state and shall be recovered in a civil action 26 brought by the attorney general in its own name, or by any of its attor- 27 neys designated by it for that purpose, against any party to an agree- 28 ment that violates this section. 29 (b) Each party that violates or assists in the violation of this 30 section shall be liable for any damages, penalties, costs, fees, injunc- 31 tions, or other equitable or legal remedies, including, but not limited 32 to, restitution and disgorgement, that may be just and reasonable. Such 33 remedies shall include, but not be limited to, any remedy available 34 under articles twenty-two or twenty-two-A of the general business law 35 and section sixty-three of the executive law. 36 (c) If the state is awarded penalties under subparagraph (i) of para- 37 graph (a) of this subdivision, it shall not recover penalties pursuant 38 to another law identified in paragraph (b) of this subdivision. This 39 section shall not be construed to foreclose the state's ability to claim 40 any equitable or legal remedy available in paragraph (b) of this subdi- 41 vision. 42 (d) An action to enforce a cause of action for a violation of this 43 section shall be commenced within six years after the cause of action 44 accrued. 45 § 2. Severability clause. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivi- 46 sion, section or part of this act shall be adjudged by any court of 47 competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, such judgment 48 shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall 49 be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, subdi- 50 vision, section or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in 51 which such judgment shall have been rendered. It is hereby declared to 52 be the intent of the legislature that this act would have been enacted 53 even if such invalid provisions had not been included herein. 54 § 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall 55 have become a law.