May 21, 2024

Senate Judiciary Committee
226 Senate Dirksen Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20010

Dear Senator,

On behalf of the more than one million members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), I urge you during your hearing this morning on affordable and accessible medicines and competition in the prescription drug market to express your strong support for intellectual property (IP) rights, including patent protection, which are essential to the research and development of safe and effective medicines and technologies that have saved and will continue to save millions of lives around the world.  Any arguments to the contrary should be rejected.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Intellectual Property Rights Index ranks the United States first in the world according to its analysis of 50 criteria.  Efforts to undermine and devalue IP rights through price controls or the exercise of march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act would severely harm America’s status for IP protection, stifle the development of new and innovative drugs and technologies, and hurt patients. 

Biopharmaceutical innovation means new treatment options for patients and medical advancements like Winrevair, a breakthrough biologic used to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a rare and life-threatening disease that causes blood vessels in the heart to thicken and narrow.  It was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 26, 2024.  For Katrina Barry, who was diagnosed with PAH at age 25 and told she only had two to five years to live, the approval of Winrevair is more than a medical breakthrough, it is a life-saving drug that worked so well that she has been able to resume many of the activities she enjoyed before her diagnosis. 

These medical success stories should be celebrated, promoted, and enabled, rather than coddling the idea that there should be less protection of IP rights.  That includes the Biden administration’s pursuit of a “whole-of-government approach” to consider the use of march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act.  The law was intended to support commercialization of discoveries by universities and non-profits that were funded by the federal government.  March-in rights included in the legislation would be used only if there was no effort to commercialize the research.  This has never occurred since the law took effect on December 12, 1980.  If march-in rights are imposed, medical innovation will be threatened as biopharmaceutical companies will be dissuaded from researching and developing future cures. 

The United States is and must remain the global leader in medical innovation.  IP rights underlie all successful discoveries, including new biologics like Winrevair.  Weakening IP rights is destructive and unnecessary and will hinder the future research and development needed to create new cures and life-saving technologies.  The benefits of IP should be recognized and applauded, not attacked.  Thank you for your consideration of CCAGW’s support of IP rights.

Sincerely, 

Tom Schatz 
President, CCAGW