March-In Rights Could Lower Drug Prices, Support Patient Access

November 21, 2024

March-In Rights Could Lower Drug Prices, Support Patient Access

Washington, D.C. - In a new analysis featured in Health Affairs Forefront, Public Citizen Access to Medicine experts Jishian Ravinthiran and Steve Knievel dive into how agencies could lower prices of certain crucial prescription drugs through march-in rights.

The Bayh-Dole Act passed in 1980 includes a protection for federal agencies that offer grants that result in new inventions. These "march-in rights" allow a federal agency to require the owner of an invention that was made with federal funds to grant permission to a third party for the use of the invention under certain conditions. For example, if a drug corporation sets an excessive price for a medicine invented with taxpayer funds, an agency can march-in and license generic competitors. In 2023, the Biden Administration issued draft guidance to utilize march-in rights to lower the prices of taxpayer-funded prescription drugs. In their analysis, Ravinthiran and Knievel outline how agencies can exercise march-in rights to lower the price of treatments for thousands of patients facing life-threatening cancers and heart diseases.

"There is no reason patients in the United States should be paying more than their peers in other high-income nations on drugs that U.S. taxpayers supported. March-in rights are a powerful tool to remedy these pricing abuses and provide thousands of patients with more affordable access to lifesaving treatments," said Ravinthiran.