After last year’s election, Donald Trump declared his determination “to bring down drug prices.” As president, he’s now reportedly cooking up an executive order aimed at cutting regulations for drug companies, which probably won’t do much to lower prices but should please industry execs. It’s worth asking, though: If Trump really wanted to bring down drug prices, could he? The university, in turn, made the patent available to drug companies royalty-free to facilitate its widespread availability. But there’s another federal patent law he might need to keep an eye on. “My preferred solution is that the federal government selectively buy out drug patents at time of FDA drug approval,” said Joel Hay, a professor of pharmaceutical economics at USC.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 01, 2017 09:56 UTC