State attorneys general: Use federal law to lower cost, increase supply of COVID-19 drug remdesivir

State attorneys general: Use federal law to lower cost, increase supply of COVID-19 drug remdesivir California, Louisiana and other attorneys general say Gilead Sciences’ antiviral should be licensed to others to ease potential shortages, lower price Ken Alltucker USA TODAY

A bipartisan coalition of attorneys general asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday to invoke a federal patent law to increase supply and lower prices of the COVID-19 drug remdesivir.

The group, led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, said HHS, the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health should license Gilead Sciences’ antiviral to other manufacturers to ease potential shortages and lower the drug's price.

Gilead charges $3,120 for a five-day course for patients with private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. Remdesivir supplies are "dangerously limited," and the price will "impede access to treatment" and strain state budgets, the attorneys general wrote in a letter to the federal agencies.

The 1980 Bayh-Dole Act allows federal agencies to retain patent rights if a drug company charges too much or fails to reasonably “alleviate health or safety needs” of consumers, the letter says. If federal agencies refuse the request, the group wants "march-in" rights to be assigned to states.

"We cannot afford to leave the supply of this critical medication to chance and the whims of the marketplace when it was funded in part by taxpayer dollars," said Becerra, a Democrat.

Landry, a Republican, said Gilead's pricing is not reasonable and the drug company has not met the public's health and safety needs. 

"Our bipartisan coalition is calling on the federal government to exercise its rights to help increase the supply of remdesivir and lower its price," he said.

The letter is signed by attorneys general of 31 states: California, Louisiana, Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. Attorneys general for the District of Columbia, American Samoa and Guam also signed.