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.
To sum up some of the details of the article, this only applies to drugs developed using government funding. The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 gave private companies the right to hold parents on drugs developed with public funding, but also included a safeguard, “march-in rights”, which gives the government rights to override those patents. The new order introduces a policy of exercising those rights in some cases.
It seems that if this is used the government would grant rights to a competitor to sell the drug at a lower price.
To sum up some of the details of the article, this only applies to drugs developed using government funding. The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 gave private companies the right to hold parents on drugs developed with public funding, but also included a safeguard, “march-in rights”, which gives the government rights to override those patents. The new order introduces a policy of exercising those rights in some cases.
It seems that if this is used the government would grant rights to a competitor to sell the drug at a lower price.