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WASHINGTON — The White House is throwing its support behind a controversial authority that allows the government to undermine patent rights for certain high-priced medicines. It’s an early step that could have major ramifications for the American pharmaceutical industry, depending on whether and how federal officials actually use the authority.

The administration issued a framework for the National Institutes of Health to more broadly use so-called “march-in rights” — a policy that allows it to invalidate patent rights from drugmakers whose products rely on federally funded research. The framework lays out when the agency might assert this authority, and endorse using a drug’s price in that determination.

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“We’ll make clear that when drug companies won’t sell taxpayer funded drugs at reasonable prices, we will be prepared to allow other companies to provide those drugs for less,” White House National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard told reporters. “These authorities are in existing laws, the last administration just didn’t want to allow them to be used in this way.”

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