On the question of taking action to lower prescription drug prices, progressive lawmakers are of two minds. Some argue that Congress should simply pass legislation to allow the government to set the price for prescription medications. That approach, whether wise on policy grounds or not, at least has the virtue of fidelity to our constitutional process of lawmaking.
A more brazen view, on the other hand, holds that Congress, without meaning to do so or even knowing it was doing so, has already enacted legislation that would allow the federal government to bypass patent rights on certain medications. This tortured reading of existing law forms the basis of a demand from a number of progressive lawmakers that when a medication is "too expensive," the Biden administration should force patent owners to license their patents to generic companies so that they can make and sell cheaper copies.
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