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Building A Wall? The Plan To End “March In” Threat To US Drug Patents

 
• By Michael McCaughan

Calls to exercise “march in” rights on federal patents licensed to pharmaceutical companies are a recurring theme in the US drug pricing debate. Now the Department of Commerce is proposing to make those threats even emptier than they already are.

Trumpet & Tuba Player
Pharma could soon be humming a happy tune about "march in" rights.

Critics of the pharmaceutical industry and its pricing practices love to talk about “marching in” – invoking a standard clause in technology transfer agreements that allows the federal government to order its licensee to share patent rights with third parties under certain circumstances.

The “march in” rights are embedded in the fundamental statute governing technology transfer in the US, known as the Bayh-Dole Act after its primary authors

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