There seems to be a pretty simple solution to high drug prices: the Bayh-Dole Act. The background to the law is this: previously if a private institution used

There seems to be a pretty simple solution to high drug prices: the Bayh-Dole Act. The background to the law is this: previously if a private institution used federal grants to develop a new drug, the federal government retained patent rights. The federal government isnt particularly good at commercializing products so the Bayh-Doye act allows for private institutions to retain patents for innovations funded via government grants. The government retains certain rights to the patent (this is important). With this situation you have a case where the American tax payer essentially pays twice for certain drugs, their taxes paid for the federal grant that discovered the drug and now they have to pay a private company to actually use the drug. Well, the Bayh-Dole act grants the government "march-in" rights, which basically allows the government to license any patent derived using federal funds to a third party if the original partner “has not taken, or is not expected to take within a reasonable time, effective steps to achieve practical application of the … invention”. The government has NEVER exercised it's march-in rights. I understand the hesitation to drastically change the market for a product by granting a 3rd party a patent that they would otherwise never have, but it's been made clear over the past few years that many pharmaceutical companies are acting in bad faith and abusing their market position by drastically increasing drug prices. I think exercising Bayh-Dole on a high profile drug (EpiPen??) would shake the market back into reasonable price structures. It's a huge hammer the federal government is not wielding.