Senator Leahy Urges NIH to Use March-In Rights on Myriad BRCA Test

On Friday, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) sent a letter to Dr. Francis Collins, the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), "to urge [the Director] to consider using march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act to ensure greater access to genetic testing for breast and ovarian cancer."  The Bayh-Dole Act, which was enacted in 1980, created a uniform patent policy among the many federal agencies that fund research, enabling small business and non-profit organizations -- including universities -- to retain title to inventions made under federally funded research programs.  In commemorating the Act's 30th anniversary in 2010, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office noted that "[t]he legislation is credited with the creation of thousands of new companies and billions of dollars of direct benefits to the U.S. economy" (see "USPTO Recognizes 30th Anniversary of Bayh-Dole Act").

As a result of the concern that U.S. taxpayers should not have to pay businesses for inventions that the public has already paid for, legislators added a section to the Act that gave the government "march-in" rights.  Recently, a handful of groups...