Patients, Researchers, and Public Interest Groups tell the Senate to Protect Patent Eligibility Limits
Alex Moss | October 14, 2025
If you listened to the recent Senate hearing on the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA), you might think the only thing at stake is the clarity of the law for a handful of large corporations. You would have heard a lot about “uncertainty.”
What you wouldn’t have heard is how this bill could determine what a life-saving diagnostic test will cost a family, or whether a university researcher can freely investigate a genetic link to disease without being sued.
A dangerous narrative is taking hold, and it’s one that leaves out the people who matter most. That’s why a coalition of organizations representing patients, scientists, and the public interest has sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, setting the record straight. The message is simple: PERA is not a solution; it’s a threat to American health and innovation.
The Flawed Premise: Innovation Isn't Built in a Vacuum
The push for PERA is built on a myth—that innovation happens best when every idea, no matter how fundamental, can be locked down by a private monopoly. The truth is the exact opposite. Breakthrough science is cumulative. It builds on a shared foundation of knowledge—a “scientific commons” of natural laws, biological correlations, and basic ideas.
Current patent law, under Section 101, acts as the guardian of this commons. It wisely draws a line, ensuring that no one can patent a law of nature itself. PERA would erase this line, allowing corporations to monopolize the very building blocks of science simply by describing them with a computer or a test tube. This doesn’t promote innovation; it creates a minefield of “patent thickets” that will trap the very researchers we rely on for future cures.
The Unheard Voices: The Real-World Cost of PERA
So, who gets hurt when we turn the foundations of knowledge into private property?
Patients and Families: PERA would allow companies to patent basic discoveries, like the correlation between a gene and a disease. This means fewer companies could offer competitive diagnostic tests, leading to higher prices and less access to critical health information.
Scientists and Researchers: Under PERA, the freedom to investigate nature—the bedrock of scientific progress—would be jeopardized. Researchers could find their work blocked by patents on the fundamental “what” of nature, not a specific invention.
Anyone Who Pays for Healthcare: By making it easier to “evergreen” old drugs and patent fundamental concepts, PERA is a recipe for less competition and higher prices for drugs, tests, and treatments. This places an unsustainable burden on families, employers, and public health programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
A Call to Protect Progress
The current patent eligibility standards are not broken; they are essential. They ensure that patents reward genuine, human-made inventions, not the discovery of what already exists in nature. They protect what belongs to all of us.
We urge Congress to listen to the voices that were missing from the hearing. We need patent eligibility limits to ensure patents promote genuine innovation, affordable healthcare, and the public good.