The new NIH director is walking a tightrope on Biden’s drug pricing vision

WASHINGTON — President Biden has promised to require fair prices from drugmakers that use federally funded research — and now, in a major recent move, said he’ll trigger government “march-in” on patents for drugs that run afoul of that goal.

“It’s a simple principle. You shouldn’t pay the highest price in the world for drugs that your tax dollars have already helped create,” Biden said last month as he touted the move at the National Institutes of Health.

But the new NIH director, locked in the center of this debate, isn’t taking any big steps yet.

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