Marching Towards Disaster: Examining the Commerce Department’s Administration of the Bayh-Dole Act and Whether March-In Rights Should Be Used to Reduce Drug Costs
16 Pages Posted: 26 Feb 2021
Date Written: December 21, 2020
Abstract
This paper explores the history of the Bayh-Dole Act, its administration by the Department of Commerce, and the question that faces every new administration that has campaigned to lower the cost of prescription drugs: should Bayh-Dole's march-in rights be exercised to reduce the cost of drugs created with federal funding? This paper concludes that while the National Institute of Standards and Technology, within Commerce, has the authority to promulgate regulations requiring federal agencies to march in on companies to address the cost of federally funded technology, including prescription drugs, doing so would likely disrupt the success of the country’s technology transfer program and be less effective than stand-alone legislation that tackles the high cost of drugs.
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