NIH won’t use march-in to lower prices

NIH Director Francis Collins said at congressional hearing on Thursday that the agency will not use “march-in” rights over medical products patented by the institutes or its grantees as a tool to lower drug prices.

Collins was responding to a question from Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) about NIH’s legal authority under the Bayh-Dole Act to terminate an exclusive license and allow competitors to manufacture a drug. The march-in provisions are intended “to cover a circumstance when a drug isn’t available to the public at any cost,” not to intervene when a drug price is unreasonable, Collins said. He added that NIH’s “legal experts” have advised him that NIH can’t terminate a license based on a drug’s price. ...