The ongoing efforts by the White House to make major dents in drug pricing brought heated criticism from Senate Republicans this week with President Biden’s reported interest in seizing taxpayer-funded drug patents through unused, decades-old legislation.

The lawmakers’ intervention follows the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) publication in the Federal Register last December of draft guidance on how — with drug pricing as a factor — agencies may exercise “march-in” rights to seize intellectual property related to research under the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. 

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, joined 16 GOP colleagues in a letter this week to National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Monica Bertagnolli arguing Bayh-Dole does not allow march-in rights to acquire taxpayer-funded patented medicines due to price and make available cheaper, generic alternatives.  

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