HHS Secretary Sylvia Matthews Burwell has denied the request from a group of House Democrats for the department to issue guidance on the use of "march-in rights" to dissolve drug patents for drugs that are priced too high, according to The Hill.
In January, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) headed a group of more than 50 House Democrats in writing to HHS asking it to issue guidance on circumstances in which march-in rights would apply. Under a 1980 law, these rights allow HHS to break a drug patent if its research was federally funded and it is not "available to the public on reasonable terms," according to the report.
Secretary Burwell's rejection letter of their request suggests she is not willing to combat high prescription drug prices as aggressively as some House Democrats would like. The lawmakers argue that simply issuing guidance on the application of march-in rights — guidance that would have come from the National Institutes of Health — would send a warning to drug companies to keep their prices in check, according to the report.
"After consulting with the NIH, we believe the statutory criteria are sufficiently clear and additional guidance is not needed," Secretary Burwell wrote in the letter, The Hill reported. However, the Obama administration is not ruling out march-in rights in the future. Secretary Burwell also wrote in her letter that HHS is "prepared to use its authority when presented with a case where the statutory criteria are met."
Rep. Doggett said Monday that his request was "clearly justified" to "discourage widespread price gouging," but he is "pleased that the administration is prepared to use existing authority on a case-by-case basis to address the problem," according to the report.