cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9298788
The Biden Administration on Thursday announced it is setting new policy that will allow it to seize patents for medicines developed with government funding if it believes their prices are too high.
The policy creates a roadmap for the government’s so-called march-in rights, which have never been used before. They would allow the government to grant additional licenses to third parties for products developed using federal funds if the original patent holder does not make them available to the public on reasonable terms.
Under the draft roadmap, seen by Reuters, the government will consider factors including whether only a narrow set of patients can afford the drug, and whether drugmakers are exploiting a health or safety issue by hiking prices.
“We’ll make it clear that when drug companies won’t sell taxpayer funded drugs at reasonable prices, we will be prepared to allow other companies to provide those drugs for less,” White House adviser Lael Brainard said on a press call.
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What a good piece of legislation can really make a difference for so many Americans. I’m excited to see this never be used and quietly get taken off the books in three years by Republicans.
Three years? That’s optimistic…
Maaan i wish there was some more info on what the white house ‘believes’ is expensive, cuz whether this policy could be amazing or useless depends entirely upon that question mark
Leaving it vague allows the government more leeway, and companies less opportunities for “well, technically” gotchas from their scores of lawyers
Surely youre right, because the answer of whether they are too high is ‘yes’ for every drug sold in the us.
I guess I’m interested in how they are using it, if at all. If Biden plans on reducing 'scrips in time for the election it could help pump his numbers up i guess? I’m just spitballing, cuz i can’t see how it’s gonna be used. i am too cynical after all these years to believe the poor get any breaks.
Of you want to be cynical, I’ll bet it’s only used on companies with whom the administration makes behind the scenes deals with before going public with it. Financial or helping them look good, or offering future contracts
This only covers “Taxpayer funded drugs”. apparently.
That’s a huge portion of them. Taxpayers help out a lot at early levels of drug discovery with things like public universities and research grants.
Which is why research papers should be provided for free if they were funded with tax money.
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Man that’s a really important piece of information, it should be in the article title. The greediest companies are not the tax payer funded ones
No, the greediest companies take all the tax payer funding and research they can before patenting it and pretending they made it, see moderna. Why pay for your research when you can get the taxpayers to do it?
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The spirit is willing but the body is spongy and bruised
