Healthcare Leadership Council Urges Biden Administration to Withdraw Guidance on March-In Rights to Preserve Medical Progress, Prevent Cost Increases
If Implemented, Federal Confiscation of Intellectual Property Rights Would Result in Fewer Therapeutic Options for Patients
WASHINGTON – The Healthcare Leadership Council, a coalition of chief executives from all disciplines within American healthcare, is asking the Biden Administration to withdraw proposed regulatory guidance that could create a “march-in” process for the federal government to override a company’s intellectual property rights, ultimately reducing the flow of new treatments and cures for American patients.
In a February 1st letter to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), President and CEO Maria Ghazal wrote on behalf of HLC that opening the door to government seizure of private sector intellectual property will discourage investment in medical research and development, translating “into a much smaller pipeline of therapies vying to enter the market, reducing both medical progress and product competition.”
“This will ultimately result in fewer options for patients and providers, over time putting brakes on improvements in clinical outcomes and causing increased health costs in other medical services necessitated to compensate for the absence of novel therapies and curative treatments,” continued HLC.
Efforts by interest groups to encourage federal use march-in rights as a back door approach to price controls, stated HLC, would subvert the purpose of the Bayh-Dole law, which was created to encourage private companies to commercialize and make further investments in inventions that involved government-funded foundational research. The use of march-in rights would return American innovation to where things stood before the passage of Bayh-Dole, when the federal government owned 28,000 patents and less than five percent of them were licensed to become products to improve patient health, according to HLC.
For Immediate Release: February 13, 2024
Contact: Kelly Fernandez, (202) 449-3452
