On January 10, 2023, twenty-five Members of Congress sent a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra urging him to act on the Xtandi request, and to use the Bayh-Dole Act to
lower the price of Xtandi (enzalutamide) for US patients. The initial request to use Bayh-Dole rights to lower the price of Xtandi was submitted by Robert Sachs, Clare Love and Eric Sawyer in November 2021, and the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health have yet to act upon it. The letter from Members of Congress also asked specific questions concerning the process and timeline of their review of the request.
The Members of Congress who signed on to the letter were:
- Senators Elizabeth Warren, Angus King, Bernie Sanders, Jeff Merkley, Cory Booker, Edward Markey, and Chris Van Hollen
- Representatives Lloyd Doggett, Raul Grijalva, Barbara Lee, Chuy Garcia, Andre Carson, Pramila Jayapal, Jan Schakowsky, Cori Bush, Mark Pocan, Ro Khanna Rosa DeLauro, Sheila Jackson Lee, Jill Tokuda, Jerrold Nadler, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Danny Davis, and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick