[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 12, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S5904]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Prescription Drug Costs

  Mr. President, now, on another matter, last week the Biden 
administration announced the latest front in its push for prescription 
drug socialism: march-in rights.
  Here is what it means. Washington bureaucrats are claiming the 
authority to determine price ranges for drugs funded through public-
private partnerships. And if these unelected regulators decide that a 
company has set its price too high, they will steal the company's 
intellectual property rights. In President Biden's own words, ``the 
government reserves the right to `march in' and license that drug to 
another manufacturer who can sell it for less.''
  To make matters worse, the Biden administration claims that the 
authority for this power grab comes from a 1980 law designed to promote 
the exact opposite outcome. The purpose of the Bayh-Dole Act was to 
encourage private-public cooperation to drive new innovations in 
medicine, not the other way around.
  The truth is, incentives matter. If Washington bureaucrats get the 
final say on how American producers market lifesaving cures, then 
America will cease to be the world's leading hub of medical innovation.
  Why would any entrepreneur invest the time and resources to create a 
new treatment if the government can simply steal their intellectual 
property and redistribute it?
  Unsurprisingly, the Biden administration is still working out the 
kinks of prescription drug socialism. But the medical innovation sector 
can't afford to wait before considering its investments. Neither, for 
that matter, can a whole host of other industries that rely on public-
private partnerships. Just think about what it could mean in fast-
evolving areas of technology.
  Under the model of prescription drug socialism, the Biden 
administration is laying the groundwork for government patent seizure 
on other cutting-edge technologies, from semiconductors to nuclear 
energy.
  America's pipeline of lifesaving cures is the envy of the world. 
American entrepreneurs and researchers save millions of lives. If 
President Biden wants to march in on this innovation sector, the bright 
minds behind it just might decide to take their intellectual property 
and march out of the American market.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Republican whip.