A House Democrat derided the Obama administration’s claim that it can’t do enough to combat high drug prices due to congressional obstruction.
“The administration’s insistence that the Republican Congress ought to pass a bill sometimes is an excuse for not doing anything more administratively,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, speaking during an event at the left-leaning think tank Center for American Progress.
Doggett pointed to several administration actions it can do now to address high prices. Those include using a process called “march-in” rights to take away patent protection for pricey drugs developed using taxpayer research funding.
So far the National Institutes of Health has not used the power for pricing, but Doggett and many Senate and House Democrats believe it should be considered. They asked for a hearing to explore the use of march-in rights for the prostate cancer drug Xtandi.
“If the administration wants to slow the spike in drug prices, the NIH hearing now on Xtandi is one place to start,” said Doggett.
Doggett added that the Food and Drug Administration also could look at whether a drug is an improvement over existing treatments.
The agency could do more on promoting competition through the way it prioritizes applications, Doggett said.
Doggett was heartened by rhetoric on the campaign trail from Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and even acknowledged that GOP front-runner Donald Trump has spoken about the issue.
“With obstruction not likely to recede in 2017, hopefully by a few votes, I think these questions are very relevant for the next administration,” he said.
