When outsiders think of West Virginia, their minds typically turn to our state’s natural beauty, Appalachian culture, or perhaps our energy industries. Many might be surprised to learn, however, that the Mountain State has become an emerging hub of scientific research and entrepreneurial development.
West Virginia’s bioscience industries are driving economic growth across our state. Today, bioscience research and manufacturing supports over 20,000 jobs. Scientists and entrepreneurs here are working to bring new treatments and technologies to patients across the country.
Unfortunately, a new Biden administration proposal would curb research and development and halt this forward momentum.
The administration’s proposal would essentially overturn a 1980 law, the Bayh-Dole Act, that gave universities like WVU, Marshall and others the right to patent and license inventions that their researchers made with the help of federal grants. Academic institutions can license their technologies to private-sector partners in exchange for royalties, which then help fund further research as well as other endeavors.
Those private-sector companies, in turn, invest additional resources to transform breakthrough discoveries into lifesaving treatments and useful products.
When Congress passed Bayh-Dole, lawmakers unleashed the true potential of our nation’s innovation engine. In the last few decades, discoveries resulting from Bayh-Dole have contributed nearly $2 trillion to our national economy. The law has supported the formation of around 17,000 new businesses. And, as many as 6.5 million jobs exist today thanks to the law.
To be sure, America had an appetite for research and development in the pre-Bayh-Dole era, too. But, since the government retained the rights to any inventions resulting from federally supported research, there was essentially no way for private industry to spin those discoveries into new medicines and other useful products. And the government showed little interest in stepping up to the plate. In total, federal agencies licensed under 5% of the nearly 30,000 patents under their care.
Bayh-Dole has played a particularly important role in catalyzing medical research. The law deserves at least partial credit for the development of over 200 new drugs and vaccines. These treatments include CAR T-cell therapy and drugs to treat epilepsy, ovarian cancers, and multiple sclerosis. Even medicines that we might take for granted today, like the flu mist or the allergy medication Allegra, trace their roots back to Bayh-Dole.
Yet the Biden administration is on the cusp of making Bayh-Dole’s success a thing of the past.
Recently, the administration revealed a new plan that would give the government power to “march-in” and tear up existing patent license agreements on a whim. This will destroy public-private partnerships and introduce new uncertainty into the market that will make companies and their investors wary of licensing university research.
For West Virginia’s burgeoning bioscience industries, the President’s plan would be particularly devastating. Small businesses are likely to feel its effects most acutely, given they are often the most reliant on venture capital investment to keep the lights on. When the average cost of drug development surpasses $2.6 billion, why would any investor put their bets on a risky research project that could ultimately become a casualty of government overreach?
The resulting drop-off in research won’t just hurt biotech workers. It’ll deprive ordinary West Virginians access to cutting-edge treatments. In recent years, nearly 1,300 patients have volunteered for clinical trials, where they agree to receive experimental medicines still in development. There will be far fewer clinical trials if the Biden administration deters companies from partnering with our medical schools and health systems.
Thousands of workers in the Mountain State’s burgeoning technology industries, and the patients who benefit from them, can only hope the Biden administration abandons this misguided proposal.
Bryan Brown serves as the Executive Director of the Bioscience Association of West Virginia.