February 19, 2026
For Immediate Release
“PATIENTS AND PATENTS” CAMPAIGN PARTNERS LAUNCH WEBSITE
A grassroots education campaign on pharmaceutical patents
(Vancouver, B.C.) — Prescription drug prices continue to rise around the world, putting essential medications out of reach for too many people living with chronic diseases. Arthritis Consumer Experts today launched the Patients and patents campaign website as part of a new global, patient-led initiative designed to help patients better understand how pharmaceutical patents affect access to affordable medications.
Visit the website here: https://patientsandpatents.info/
Why this matters to people living with chronic diseases
Pharmaceutical patents are meant to reward innovation. But when patent strategies delay competition from more affordable options such as generics and biosimilars, patients and healthcare systems feel the impact.
The Patients and patents website provides clear, plain-language information about:
- How pharmaceutical patents work
- Why lower-cost alternatives may be delayed
- What these delays mean for patients and public drug plans
- How patent rules differ across countries
- What patients and organizations can do to raise awareness
A global patient-led effort
The campaign is led by patient organizations in Canada, the United States, and Australia, and is expanding to include additional patient groups who share a commitment to improving equitable access to medicines.
Commenting on the launch of the campaign website, Cheryl Koehn, President, Arthritis Consumer Experts, said: “Patients deserve transparency and a stronger voice in conversations about medication affordability and patent policy. Our campaign aims to help ensure that patients understand how patent rules affect access to treatment and work toward solutions that protect both innovation and affordability.”
About Arthritis Consumer Experts
Arthritis Consumer Experts (ACE) is a national organization that provides free, science-based information and education programs to people with arthritis. ACE serves people living with all forms of arthritis by helping them take control of their disease and improve their quality of life through education and empowerment. Founded and led by people with arthritis, ACE also actively advocates on arthritis health and policy issues, through ACE’s JointHealth™ family of programs and the Arthritis Broadcast Network, directly to consumers/patients, health care professionals, media and government. ACE is guided by a strict set of guiding principles, set out by an advisory board comprised of leading scientists, medical professionals and informed arthritis consumers.
Arthritis Consumer Experts and its team members acknowledge that they gather and work on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples - xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. We are committed to walking forward on the path of Truth and Reconciliation, in part by recognizing the important connection between the land and the health of the Coast Salish Peoples.
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For further information, please contact:
Kelly Lendvoy
Vice President, Communications & Public Affairs
Arthritis Consumer Experts
(604) 379.9898
Lendvoy@jointhealth.org
Arthritis Consumer Experts
ACE thanks Arthritis Research Canada (ARC) for its scientific review of ACE and JointHealth™ information and education programs.