President Joe Biden
has crossed the line from ill-advised policy to government theft of
intellectual property
in the White House’s latest economically disastrous move. The Biden-Harris administration’s announcement of its proposed framework on the use of “
march-in rights
” to seize patents from certain taxpayer-funded drugs is a clear regulatory overreach, distorting the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act. The administration’s manipulation of this law,
designed to incentivize
private-public collaboration, will have the opposite effect, serving as the ultimate deterrent for research and investment in
critical new cures.
This use of the Bayh-Dole Act also sets a dangerous precedent for federal intervention across a variety of industries.
Under Bayh-Dole, the government retains certain
reclamation rights
for products created through public-private sector partnerships. This includes the right to
