Republican lawmakers blasted President Biden over a proposed policy in which the government will “march in” and seize patents from pharmaceutical companies that it deems are charging too much for prescription drugs.
The proposal, announced Thursday by Biden, is the latest plank of the 81-year-old president’s “Bidenomics” agenda and targets drugs developed with taxpayer dollars, which is virtually every medicine approved by the Food and Drug Administration since 2010, in an effort to lower prices.
“Folks, right now, 25 of the largest pharmaceutical companies in America control 70% of the market,” Biden said in a tweet.
“This lack of competition drives up prices – making it harder for hardworking American families to access the health care they need.”
The president explained that under the proposed policy, if a drug is made using government funds and is “not reasonably available to Americans, the government reserves the right to ‘march in’ and license that drug to another manufacturer who could sell it for less.”
He calls it “an important step toward ending Big Pharma price gouging” that will be “good for competition” and “good for our economy.”
Republican doctors in Congress, as well as several economists, slammed the policy.
“So now dictator Biden seizes the intellectual property of hard-working Americans. He is the dictator!” Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), a physician, wrote on
The proposal, announced Thursday by Biden, is the latest part of the “Bidenomics” agenda and targets drugs developed with taxpayer dollars, which is virtually every medicine approved by the Food and Drug Administration since 2010.The White House
Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) blasted Biden as a “dictator” for the proposed policy.
