WASHINGTON (January 8, 2026) — The European Council and Parliament recently finalized the General Pharmaceutical Legislation (GPL), a sweeping package of legislative changes that significantly weakens the European Union’s system of intellectual property protections and exacerbates European free-riding on American innovation.
In response, Frank Cullen, Executive Director of the Council for Innovation Promotion, issued the following statement:
“The passage of the General Pharmaceutical Legislation is a deeply troubling development for Europe, the United States, and the future of innovation across our regions. As the Trump administration has recognized, Europe has long relied on American technological and scientific advances — particularly in medicine — while adopting policies that burden innovators and discourage investment.
The legislative package continues this trend by eroding key intellectual property protections for medicines, undermining the EU’s pledge to work with the United States to ensure ‘high-standard… intellectual property rights protection and enforcement.’ In doing so, it imposes a de facto tax on U.S. innovators operating in Europe, threatens biomedical progress on both sides of the Atlantic, and invites the further erosion of IP rights across countries and industries.
The GPL reduces protection of regulatory data for new medicines and expands exceptions to patent infringement, undermining patent enforcement in the European Union. Collectively, these provisions dramatically reduce incentives for companies to undertake high-risk research and development and weaken trust in the stability of IP rights worldwide.
That erosion of trust and incentives threatens American companies and workers and puts U.S. leadership and competitiveness at risk. The United States must respond to restore a fair playing field. We further urge the United States Government to work swiftly with the European Union to revise the GPL and restore strong IP standards to ensure the future strength of the transatlantic trading partnership and our collective global leadership in innovation.”
About the Council for Innovation Promotion: The Council for Innovation Promotion is a bipartisan coalition dedicated to promoting strong and effective intellectual property rights that drive innovation, boost economic competitiveness, and improve lives everywhere.