Far Out: The Extended Denial of Public Access to Psychedelic Therapeutics

The US patent system aims to promote innovation by granting inventors a temporary monopoly in exchange for full disclosure of their invention, which then becomes freely available to the public after the patent expires. For medical advances, this system typically leads to lower drug prices once patents expire, as competitors enter the market. However, the Controlled Substances Act and related laws have artificially blocked research into psychedelic compounds for medical use, delaying public access to potentially beneficial therapies that have a long history of human use.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The United States patent regime is designed to promote dissemination of information that undergirds a particular innovation. To incentivize disclosure, inventors are granted a time-limited right to exclude others from practicing the invention, thereby affording the inventor a period in which to commercialize and financially benefit from their inventive contribution. The disclosure provides information sufficient for one of skill in the relevant art to make and use the invention, and the public may freely do so upon the patent’s expiry. Global advancement of human medicine is fundamentally intertwined with the United States patent system; medical progress largely depends upon the exclusionary protections United States patents confer. Ordinarily, the expiry of patents covering therapeutic products and methods yields substantial price reduction, as new market participants seek to establish market share by undercutting the expired patent holder and others. The patent system also yields to the public not only access to new and improved medical technology but also a delayed, unencumbered freedom to make and use the invention upon the patent’s exhaustion. Recently, psychoactive chemical compounds have garnered renewed and international attention. Although many psychedelic substances have had a long history of human use, including within therapeutic contexts, the Controlled Substances Act and related legislation significantly stifled research directed toward developing these substances for medical use. This “artificial” impediment to therapeutic innovation effectively delayed public access to the fruits of earlier innovation.