The Biden Administration Is Punting On A Way To Make Cancer Drugs Cheaper

[News Junkie]

President Joe Biden’s administration has decided not to pursue an untested legal strategy that could dramatically lower the cost of medication for prostate cancer patients, angering key lawmakers who fear the administration is punting on challenging the power of the pharmaceutical industry.

Patient advocates and progressives had hoped the administration would use its executive powers to enable production of generic versions of Xtandi, a prostate cancer drug developed with federal funding at UCLA. The drug’s manufacturer charges up to $190,000 a year for the drug in the United States while charging a fraction of that price in other developed countries.

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Specifically, they want the administration to use its authority under a 1980 law to “march in” and claim rights to drugs developed with federal research funding if drug companies do not make them “available to the public on reasonable terms.” In such cases, the government can license production to other firms or, in theory, produce the drug on its own.

The 1980 law is known as “Bayh-Dole” and is named for its co-sponsors, the late Sens. Birch Bayh (D-Ind.) and Bob Dole (R-Kan.). By using Bayh-Dole to force down the price of Xtandi, advocates have been hoping, the federal government would establish its ability to force down the price of other costly drugs ― or at least to threaten such action, prodding drugmakers to lower prices on their own.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-nih-march-in-rights-xtandi-cancer-drug_n_641cfe28e4b01ea5cd937fa4

[moonscape]

1. I wish something would be done about parity coverage

for oral cancer drugs. Chemo injected at my oncologist is 100% covered but an oral pill taken at home can involve 1k+ monthly co-pay. There’s a drug my specialist wanted me to take as part of a triplicate in therapy, but I can’t afford the co-pay and grants have dried up. It’s inexcusable.

I was on a research panel conducted by a European pharmaceutical company, and they said it’s so odd to them because there orals are far cheaper, because of course they are. But I’m denied therapy I need because although fully insured, I don’t have >1k/month for a drug.

Apologies for the veer-off from the OP, but big pharma has such a destructive stranglehold in this country and it hits plenty of nerves.

[Silent Type]

2. The article also includes some reasons Biden Admin is not using

that strategy in this case, rightly or wrongly.

I am sure of this— Biden is as supportive of cancer cures as any Prez before. If he’s not pursuing the legal strategy mentioned, he has good reason.