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Joe Biden's drug agenda, the moves he claims will cut costs for Americans when they purchase medicines, actually could cost them access to cutting-edge treatments, according to a new report.
The Washington Times explains that Biden now is scheming to punish drug manufacturers by sharing their proprietary secrets with competitors – if they don't agree to sell their products for his prices.
"Such an aggressive use of federal power may tackle high-priced prescription drugs that frustrate Americans, but critics warn that Mr. Biden could end up preventing the creation of advanced medications," the report said.
In effect, his moves could discourage companies from pursuing new and potentially life-saving treatments.
The threats from Biden are that he could revoke licenses for drugs if he determines they are priced higher than he wants. The threat comes just as Biden heads into an election trailing President Donald Trump in the polls, including in seven key swing states.
Further, he's overseen inflation of more than 17% since he took office, employment numbers are stagnant, prices for food and energy are exploding, he's promoted abortion and transgenderism at every stop, and he's given the world the impression of a weak and faltering America.
Seven in 10 Americans say the nation is on the wrong track with his leadership.
On the issue of prescriptions, some 80% say the cost of their medications is "unreasonable" and almost one-third say they cannot afford the drugs they need.
Biden's response has been to accuse corporations of price-gouging.
The report explained in that light, he's going forward with a plan to grab some drug patents and hand them to competitors if drugs "are not made available to the public on reasonable terms, including based on price."
He's using a 1980 law that was adopted to give the government a pressure point for drugs that are developed with taxpayer funding.
Biden adviser Lael Brainard told reporters, "We’ll make it clear that 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."
But drug makers and others have warned Biden's move "would chill investment and significantly reduce innovation and partnerships with the federal government, ultimately preventing lifesaving drugs from reaching the market," the report explained.
"It will stifle innovation because it introduces extensive uncertainty about whether your patents will remain exclusive to your product, your development, and your commercialization efforts over the years with private investment money," charged James Edwards, of Conservatives for Property Rights.
Previously, the National Institutes of Health has refused to use the law, the Bayh-Dole Act, to control drug prices, the report said.
But Biden decided to expand its reach to control prices early in 2023.
He took the action when the National Institutes of Health refused to hand over the patent to Xtandi to a competitor. The dispute arose because while that treatment lowers the progress of prostate cancer 61%, it costs as high as $180,000 a year per patient, four times what it costs in other countries, the report said.
Consumer groups had wanted the NIH to give the patent to a competitor who had promised to sell it cheap.
Joel Zinberg, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, pointed out that the high prices often are to cover the costs of innovation, and cheaper generics eventually reach the market without the government's intervention.
The report said the fight almost certainly will end up in court.
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None of this constitutes "politics" in any conventional or traditional American sense. Rather, it is all darkly spiritual. The greatest nation on earth is in the throes of a full-blown spiritual war between good and evil.
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