The Biden administration on Thursday asserted its authority to seize the patents of certain costly medications in a new push to slash high drug prices and promote more pharmaceutical competition.
The administration unveiled a framework outlining the factors federal agencies should consider in deciding whether to use a controversial policy, known as march-in rights, to break the patents of drugs that were developed with federal funds but are not widely accessible to the public. For the first time, officials can now factor in a medication’s price — a change that could have big implications for drugmakers depending on how the government uses the powers.
“When drug companies won’t sell taxpayer-funded drugs at reasonable prices, we will be prepared to allow other companies to provide those drugs for less,” White House National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard said during a call with reporters Wednesday.
I’m probably going to get downvoted for this, but the Biden administration has really exceeded my expectations.
They do great work, but they don’t market and promote their successes well enough. I would prefer a society that favors humility more and therefore appreciate this administration’s style, but it seems that a lack of hubris is now considered a fault in the public eye, on both sides of the aisle.
American citizens slammed with lower drug and education costs
–there, now the media can run with it lol
I would like an administration whose flamboyant about their successes so I know what to expect in my daily life when it comes to politics aka why I see more EVs (rebates funding and a federal charging grid), lower/higher prices on things (like Biden removing patents to create competition) and even insurrectionists going to jail (if we had a working justice system)!
A big part of the problem is that so much of this is “basic human decency”
Like… people who commit violent insurrection are going to jail. That should not be a news story.
And the EV rebates and improved infrastructure were part of the big IRA (hee hee) bill that did get a lot of eyes. But stuff like futzing with patents actually will piss off a lot of voters who think they are one good day away from being the head of a pharmaceuticals empire (and then they can tell their manager at the Dairy Queen to suck it).
And then you have the problem of the base. Most of the Biden Admin threads inevitably include someone complaining that they haven’t fixed student loan debt yet (although, a lot of progress was made on that like yesterday?). Because Democrats actually want things. I want a better social safety net and UBI experiments before it is too late (spoiler: it already is). Maybe you want all student loan debt to be erased. Jill over there wants… basic human rights (okay, I want that too).
But every time there is a win in one category, it just makes people angry THEY didn’t get the win and we start getting the “Biden needs to earn my vote” stupidity.
It really annoys me when they Biden has done nothing.
Then they’re all, “well I didn’t hear about it”
I get that the media and even the Dems suck at showing people what they’ve accomplished, but that doesn’t mean they’ve done nothing.
No disagreements here. I am kind of shocked by this very non neolib behavior—the above as well as well as being the first sitting president to join the UAW picket line. I was a bit miffed about the train strike, though. But his administration lobbied the companies and got them their sick days they’ve been fighting for, for ages. Really didn’t expect any of that.
Non neolib? Introducing competition rather than seizing and making them public is about as neolib as you can get.
So by letting a company keep their monopoly due to federally subsidized patent thus harming citizens but helping the company is… less neolib?
Whatever it is, it seems shittier than making a move to fuck a company – if it results in reduced drug prices anyway.
Yeah he wasn’t my first choice but I was fine voting for him and his administration has definitely beat expectations. Pretty nice what having capable people in your administration can do for your presidency. Not just scandal after scandal and departure after departure like the previous shitshow.
I wish media would give credit to the organization leaders responsible for these types of moves rather than crediting a homogeneous “Biden administration.” The fact is that the administration does deserve credit for employing a number of “progressive” (read: competent) administrators, but those departments compose a progressive wing of the administration that is not on par with some of the overall administration’s more centrist leanings.
Personnel are policy, something that the Biden administration has proved again and again since the 2020 election. Biden himself is a kind of empty vessel into which different wings of the Democratic party pour their will, yielding a strange brew of appointments both great and terrible.
Every time there’s a bunch of commenters talking about how little they like Biden (or his administration) for ‘not doing enough’, I know:
- that person almost certainly does not actually vote
- that person does not pay attention to politics, they just repeat what they’ve seen on social media, which is their own echo chamber.
How do I know they don’t vote? Because they are too lazy to even be up to date via Google on the political opinions they post - they certainly aren’t going to bother to actually leave their house and vote.
That said, the Biden administration might do well to be more bombastic with their statements about their successes. I don’t love the idea that the merit of a success would need to be ‘sold’, but you have the GOP screaming idiot things all over the media sphere every single day, and that has to be competed with.
The only point of disagreement I have is that it’s been demonstrated that the Internet doesn’t promote echo chambers, it does quite the opposite in fact.
The problem it introduces is that people are constantly exposed against their will to opposing viewpoints curated to make them as angry as possible.
This results in them becoming explosively volatile towards those opposing viewpoints even in moderated or even well justified forms because they have learned to associate any opposing opinions with the algorithm selected ultra aggro version they just had a knock down drag out hundred comment chain argument with someone a day ago.
IRL you just disregard the fucker and move on, the internet is teaching people to see everyone who disagrees with you as that fucker laying in wait to instigate yet another knock down drag out argument where you feel like you’re losing your mind talking to a wall that insists the sky is orange and that climate policy is communism because soylent green burgers or whatever.
Then there’s the additional problem of when a significant portion of the people trying to sound reasonable on the internet turn out to actually be that fucker out to instigate because they want to make you look crazy for how mad you get at their bullshit while they calmly explain that “it isn’t unreasonable to expect a politician to earn your vote!”
It’s rhetorical strategies within rhetorical strategies all designed to keep you under a constant feeling of being attacked.
Amen to that. It’s a shame the left doesn’t have a shameless media ecosystem that can produce a 24/7 cacophony of propaganda to amplify this kind of stuff.
I’m pretty sure there’s a significant difference between marketing and brainwashing. And I’m also pretty sure you already knew that.
They do, it’s just that that ecosystem is owned by the same vested interests and so it churns a cacaphony of criticism aimed at making the left feel no accomplishment is good enough and no effort is far enough.
This is already something though. It’s a legal threat.
We will only see patents actually be seized if the drug companies don’t play ball. They’ll have to choose whether to cooperate or to challenge this in the courts. The govdrnment isn’t trying to seize patents anymore than banks are hoping to repossess property.
I’ll give credit when things have changed a single smidge.
Yes it seems like most of these actions are symbolic gestures that never pan out into actual change. Like asking for marijuana to be ‘studied’ to see if it belongs as Schedule 1 with no medical value while 38 states have approved it for medical use and 24 states have legalized it for recreational use. What the fuck is left to study at this point?
Another example is him pardoning people with federal marijuana possession convictions even though nobody was actually incarcerated for simple possession in the federal prison system.
Seems this shit is all about generating headlines and political brownie points not actually improving anything in our day to day lives.
Pardons aren’t just about not being in prison.
What is a pardon?
A pardon is an expression of forgiveness to a person convicted of a crime. It does not signify innocence or expunge the conviction. A pardon can, however, remove civil or legal disabilities—such as restrictions on the right to vote, to hold office, or to sit on a jury—that are imposed because of the pardoned conviction. A pardon may also be helpful in obtaining licenses, some types of insurance, or employment.
From, interestingly enough, the DOJ site about this very topic.
https://www.justice.gov/pardon/presidential-proclamation-marijuana-possession
Personally I like that fewer lives are ruined due to stupid laws.
What a stupid comment to make. Unless this is your first day, Lemmy isoverwhelmingy in support of the biden administration, which is fine of course, but if you just scope around, its the most obvious prevailing opinion. Anytime trump is praised, which is rare, they’re down voted and reported and fucking removed.
This is as stupid as saying :
“Gonna get down voted for this but I think murder is bad”
In my experience, Lemmy is usually far enough left that they say Biden is basically a Republican. There’s absolutely a ton of “both sides bad” bullshit on Lemmy.
Drugmakers have argued that seizing the patent for a medication makes that treatment vulnerable to competition, which can reduce a company’s revenue and limit how much it can reinvest into drug development.
Or yknow, maybe spend a few billion less on marketing and TV commercials?
There would be a good governmental oversight: drug companies may no longer advertise their products to the public. I don’t think anyone has ever seen a drug commercial in a positive light; if the drug was effective and worked well you wouldn’t need to advertise it.
Moved from US to Canada and its honestly so nice not seeing or hearing ads for zoflam or whatever CONSTANTLY. You don’t realize how much it’s shoved in your face until it isn’t anymore
I’m in the US and generally don’t watch live TV with commercials, but when I do, good god the pharmaceutical commercials!
The commercials should be illegal to begin with. My partner is from the EU and when we were back in the US she was horrified by the amount of pharma marketing everywhere.
That would all be fine if they alone bore the cost for all that R&D. Clearly, thats not the case and they want to socialize the development and privatize the fruits of that development, in which case they are consequently invited to non-negotiably+kindly pound salt and go fuck themselves.
Drugmakers have argued that seizing the patent for a medication makes that treatment vulnerable to competition, which can reduce a company’s revenue and limit how much it can reinvest into drug development.
I like how that’s supposed to be a compelling argument against it, “But if we open it up to competition someone else will do it cheaper and better than us and we’ll go out of business.” Good! Fuck your company lol.
Also the taxpayers are funding the development, which is why the government can do this. If the public pays for it, they should be able to access it as far as I’m concerned.
Does anyone really see those ads then go to a DOCTOR and ask about it? Maybe I’m in the extreme minority here but I don’t have money burning a hole in my pocket to go to a doctor and if I do I want to spend the absolute least as possible
I’ve often thought that this is a perfect situation in which to invoke Eminent Domain.
If the government can decide what my home is worth, and force me to sell it at that price so that they can sell it to a developer to tear down and build something else to sell to someone else, then why can’t they decide what a patent is worth and force the patent holder to sell it at that price.
The patent holder should be compensated for whatever they paid to develop the technology. Obviously, if the patent is based on government funded research, then whatever the government already paid would be deducted from the value of the patent.
Counterpoint: They took government money, the public *already" owns those drugs (in part).
If a private investor had fronted half the money for the company, they’d own half the company. The government’s role here is angel investor, and it’s insane to let these companies buy out their partner at the initial investment price. It’s my opinion that if the US government is the majority owner of any given medication, it is in the best interest of the public that those medications be made available at cost.
More consumer protections please
Fuck yeah Dark Brandon
