Biden Won’t Chip Away at Federal ‘March-In Rights’

The Biden administration has walked back a proposal from the waning days of the Trump administration that would have restricted federal use of so-called “march-in rights” to direct private partners to license patent rights to another company for drugs they co-develop using taxpayer-funded research.

As part of its executive order issued late last week aimed at promoting competition throughout the U.S. economy, including the pharmaceuticals sector, the administration also directed the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to “consider not finalizing any provisions on march-in rights and product pricing” in a proposed rule that was issued 16 days before the Trump administration left office.

The Jan. 4 proposal by NIST would have weakened one of the few tools the federal government has to directly reduce the price of new prescription drugs by placing restrictions on federal agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health.