STAT+: Biden is urged to pursue march-in rights for a pricey cancer drug after NIH delays a petition review

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is urging the Biden administration to use a controversial provision of federal law to widen access to a cancer drug.

Citing arguments by more than two dozen legal experts, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is urging the Biden administration to use a controversial provision of federal law to widen access to a cancer drug. The move comes just days after the National Institute of Health disclosed it has not yet begun a widely anticipated review of a petition that requested using the law in connection with the medicine.

In a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Warren maintained the White House can use executive powers — and specifically, rely on so-called march-in rights and another federal law known colloquially as Section 1498 — to counter high prescription drug prices. And she pointed to a fresh position paper written by legal and public health academics to back up her assertion.

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