Do March-in Rights Ensure Low-Cost Access to Medical Products Arising From Federally-Funded Research? A Qualitative Study

Abstract

The high cost of new prescription drugs and other medical products is one of the most important health policy issues of the decade. Yet the expense of new medical technology has become controversial when the government funded key research. Studies have shown that government resources have directly contributed to the discovery of many marketed drugs and vaccines, including some of the most transformative medicines developed in the past twenty years. A controversial solution has been offered: government march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act through which the government re-asserts legal rights in products developed with public funding. The march-in rights have been publicly debated 5 times since 1980, and rejected each time. We examine these case studies to identify the prospect for march-in rights to combat the rising cost of government-funded health technologies.