3 reasons the drug industry should be worried about Biden’s HHS pick, Xavier Becerra

WASHINGTON — For a pharmaceutical industry that has spent two years sparring with health secretary Alex Azar, a former Eli Lilly executive fixated on the issue of high drug prices, President-elect Biden’s pick for the role, Xavier Becerra, may seem like incredible news. In his health policy work, Becerra has focused far more on Obamacare and health disparities than on the high price of medicines.

But one of Becerra’s earliest potential policy decisions might inflict more pain on the drug industry than anything Azar ever threatened.

Becerra has been a vocal advocate for using an obscure patent law to bring cheaper versions of Gilead’s Covid-19 treatment, remdesivir, to market. The policy, known as march-in rights, would allow other drug makers to make remdesivir even though Gilead holds the exclusive right to manufacture the drug.

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