Posts Tagged: "Senator Claire McCaskill"

McCaskill’s seemingly calculated ploy to get out in front of other Senators, all alone in her demand for a legislative solution that strips Native American Indian Tribes of sovereign immunity, may backfire. The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, which acquired the Allergan RESTASIS® patents and then granted back to Allergan an exclusive license, issued a scathing statement.

Senator McCaskill (D-MO) has introduced a bill to abrogate the sovereign immunity of Indian tribes as a defense in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Indeed, the sole purpose of McCaskill’s short, ill-conceived and hastily assembled bill is to make it impossible for Native American Indian Tribes that own patents to assert sovereign immunity when those patents are challenged in proceedings at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board… What this means is McCaskill’s bill cannot and will not remove claims of sovereign immunity from PTAB proceedings. McCaskill’s bill would only discriminate against Native American Indian Tribes.

The idea of reducing drug prices through more government control is always simmering on the backburner and doesn’t require much to bring it to a full boil. Two recent actions turned up the heat to full blast. The response is often calls for more regulation, but ever increasing regulation benefits established players, which while inconvenienced, can afford to play the game. Start-ups can’t survive in endless oceans of red-tape that increase their costs while restricting market entry. Before rushing to impose more federal control, it might be wise to ask if government regulations inadvertently contribute to the problem.