Feds Make a Pharma Patent Grab

THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION may take redistribution to new extremes if a policy revision floated in December comes to fruition. The White House wants to give federal agencies the right to seize some pharmaceutical patents when they deem drug prices too high.

- Elizabeth Nolan Brown

President Joe Biden claims authority to act under the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which lets nonprofits and small businesses retain ownership of inventions made possible by federal contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements so long as they patent and license these inventions. Its impetus was all the innovation languishing under government ownership.

"In 1980, the federal government had approximately 30,000 patents, of which only 5% led to new or improved products," according to the Syracuse University Office of Technology Transfer. The government simply didn't "have the resources to develop and market the inventions."

Under the Bayh-Dole system, it's easier for inventions (including pharmaceuticals) to get from the research stage to the market stage.