PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging. Hearings held. With printed Hearing: S.Hrg. 112-570.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · May 26, 2011
Medical Innovation Prize Fund Act - Denies any person the exclusive right to manufacture, distribute, sell, or use in interstate commerce a drug, a biological product, or a drug or biological product manufacturing process, including the exclusive right to rely on health registration data or the 30-month stay-of-effectiveness period for Orange Book patents. Prescribes remuneration, in the form of prize payments from a Fund for Medical Innovation Prizes, in lieu of such market exclusivity.
Establishes: (1) the Fund for Medical Innovation Prizes; and (2) a Board of Trustees for such Fund, which shall award prize payments for medical innovation and establish independent expert advisory committees.
Directs the Board to award prize payments for medical innovation relating to a drug, a biological product, or a new manufacturing process for a drug or biological product to: (1) the first person to receive market clearance with respect to the drug or biological product; (2) the holder of the patent with respect to a manufacturing process; or (3) persons or communities that as an open source contribution openly shared knowledge, data, materials, and technology on a royalty-free and nondiscriminatory basis.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
Requires the Board to establish and periodically modify minimum levels of funding for such awards for priority research and development, including global neglected diseases, orphan diseases, and global infectious diseases and other global public health priorities.
Allows the Board of Trustees to authorize multiple nonprofit intermediaries to reward projects for interim research and development of products or for open source dividend prizes.
Requires the Comptroller General (GAO) to conduct annual audits to determine the Board's effectiveness in bringing to market new drugs, vaccines, biological products, and manufacturing processes in a cost-effective manner and in addressing society's global medical needs.
Establishes an annual fee for health insurers to fund this Act.
People & committees
Sen. Sanders, Bernard [I-VT] · I–VT
Legislative record
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Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging. Hearings held. With printed Hearing: S.Hrg. 112-570.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
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Source last updated: Aug 14, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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