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The Mad Hatters tea party was amusing as fiction. But if the Administration chooses to join in, we will all pay a very high price. And thats no joke.

Sensing an opening after the Biden Administrations recent Executive Order put a hold on a pending regulation prohibiting the misuse of the march-in rights provision of the Bayh-Dole Act for price control, Congressional opponents of the law dusted off a ploy that failed in the Obama Administration to try their luck again. Theyve written to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra urging them to march in to control prices of drugs created from inventions arising from R&D their agencies supported.

We likened that aspect of the Executive Order to shooting ourselves in the foot, and it seemed as though it would be a while before we would know if the Administration would pull the trigger or not. With the recent Congressional actions, the day of reckoning may not be far off.

It initially seemed appropriate to compare the repetitious moves of the critics to the movie Groundhog Day, where the same things keep happening over and over. However, upon further reflection, its more like Alice in Wonderlandan analogy all too familiar in the patent world. Because for this ploy to succeed, as the White Queen proclaimed, wed have to believe several impossible things before breakfast.

Here are a few of them:

Unfortunately, there is a lot more at stake than an exercise in fictional allegories. The symbiotic partnership between our public and private sectors underpins both our economy and our well-being. Its nothing short of astonishing that less than a year after these partnerships created the most effective COVID-19 vaccines in the world (which the Administration touts daily as essential for preserving both our health and our economy) the system which created them is under attack from some of those who have benefitted the most.

The Biden Administrations actions supporting the giveaway of our COVID-19 inventions and know-how to our rivals, coupled with the language in the recent Executive Order on march-in rights, makes it appear these hard-won lessons are in real jeopardy of being ignored.

Up until now, every Administration for the last 20 years (including the Obama-Biden Administration) has rejected attempts to misuse march-in rights for price control as unauthorized under the law.

How ironic (and tragic) would it be if President Biden, who supported Bayh-Dole when he was a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, chose to go down the rabbit hole with the critics. The Mad Hatters tea party was amusing as fiction. But if the Administration chooses to join in, we will all pay a very high price. And thats no joke.

Public DomainFile:John Tenniel- Alices mad tea party, colour.jpgCreated: 1 January 1865

Joseph Allen is a Featured Contributor on IPWatchdog.com, and a 30-year veteran of national efforts to foster public/private sector commercialization partnerships, and author of numerous articles on technology management for national publications.

Joe served as a Professional Staff Member on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee with former Senator Birch Bayh (D-IN), and was instrumental in working behind the scenes to ensure passage of the historic Bayh-Dole Act. He is our resident Bayh-Dole expert, and will write frequently about Bayh-Dole and issues surrounding the commercialization of university research.

In 2008, Joe founded Allen & Associates, through which he offers consulting services assisting clients in technology transfer issues, including developing effective communication strategies with national policy makers.

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Don't Go Down the Rabbit Hole with the Foes of Bayh-Dole - IPWatchdog.com