Pharmaceutical innovations have saved countless lives. Targeted cancer therapies such as Herceptin and Cisplatin have helped turn diseases that were once virtually-incurable into manageable illnesses. These medications don’t come cheap because they take an average of $2 billion worth of investment to bring to market. In exchange, pharmaceutical companies are given intellectual property (IP) rights to their products that allow them to recoup expenses over a reasonable time-period. A growing group of lawmakers want to replace this system with a free-for-all that would jeopardize innovation and cost lives. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have urged government agencies to invalidate patents, allowing rivals to profit off drugs they did not create. And now, the Biden administration wants to (mis)use the Bayh-Dole Act to “march-in” and seize the IP of drug makers. Policymakers can protect patients by rejecting these anti-IP efforts and reaffirming patent rights.
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