Calls are growing for President Joe Biden’s Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary, Xavier Becerra, to use his administrative power to control drug pricing in a way that Becerra himself supported both as a member of Congress and as California attorney general. Becerra’s delay in doing so spotlights the gap between Biden’s campaign promises and the actions of his administration and his personnel picks.

While much of the ongoing political debate about lowering the country’s wildly exorbitant and unfair drug prices has focused on whether Congress will authorize Medicare to use its purchasing power to negotiate more reasonable pharmaceutical prices, Becerra’s office also has the power to license patented pharmaceutical products made with federal funding. In July, lawmakers sent a letter to Becerra’s office calling on the secretary to examine making use of these so-called “march-in” rights to control drug pricing.