E7 | If Competition Drops Drug Prices 80%, Why Isn't There More of It?

Every time a drug's patent is about to expire — every time competition is about to show up and prices are about to fall — Big Pharma runs the same play. It looks different each time. But the architecture is always identical. In Episode 7, Rob Burgess walks through that playbook move by move, using the two biggest-selling drugs in pharmaceutical history to show exactly how it works.First: Humira. The best-selling drug on earth. Its core patent expired in 2016. Biosimilar competition didn't arrive until 2023. The six-year delay cost American patients $75 billion. Rob walks through every move that made it happen — 250 patents, nine pay-for-delay settlements, and a product switch timed to strand the competition before it arrived. All of it documented by the company's own internal records and a three-year congressional investigation.Then: Keytruda. Merck's cancer drug. $29.5 billion in revenue last year. Core patent expires in 2028. Nearly 300 patent applications already filed. A new subcutaneous formulation launched in 2025 with patents extending to 2042. And a CEO who told investors the whole point is to turn a patent cliff into — his words — more of a hill.In this episode:The four moves of the patent abuse playbook: patent thickets, pay-for-delay, product hopping, and FDA citizen petition abuseHow 250 patents and nine pay-for-delay settlements kept Humira competition off the market for six years after its core patent expiredThe $75 billion that delay cost American patients — documented in the company's own internal projectionsHow Merck is running the same play on Keytruda right now, in real time, with a 2028 patent cliff and patents extending to 2042The Merck CEO quote that confirms the strategy — said directly to investors in a recorded statementWhy $3.5 billion a year flows out of American patients' pockets through pay-for-delay alone, every single yearThree bipartisan bills already written, already introduced, one passed the Senate unanimously — and why none of them have movedThe bottom line: This is not a side issue. It is a systematic, documented, legally sophisticated strategy to deny Americans the benefits of a free market they were promised. The Senate voted unanimously to stop it. The House needs to act.🔔 New episodes every week — subscribe so you don't miss one. 🌐 Get involved at BustBigPharma.com#BustBigPharma #Humira #Keytruda #PatentThicket #DrugPricing #BigPharma #PharmaReform #MAHA #MakeAmericaHealthyAgain #PayForDelay #ProductHopping #DrugPriceReform #PrescriptionDrugPrices #AmericansForPharmaReform