Rachel Sachs
Professor of Law
Rachel Sachs is a scholar of innovation policy, exploring the intersection of health law, food and drug regulation, and patent law. Her work analyzes problems of innovation and access to new health care technologies. Professor Sachs’ scholarship has appeared in journals that include the Duke Law Journal, the NYU Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and Health Affairs.
Professor Sachs served in the Biden-Harris Administration as a Senior Advisor at the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the General Counsel, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Division. She has testified before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, United States House of Representatives Committee on Ways & Means, and United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. She currently serves as a Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Prior to joining Washington University in St. Louis, Professor Sachs was an Academic Fellow at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics and a Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School. She also clerked for the Honorable Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She received her J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and a Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. She received her A.B. in Bioethics from Princeton University.
- Education
- J.D., Harvard Law School, 2013
- MPH, Harvard School of Public Health, 2013
- A.B., Princeton University, 2009
- Courses
- Property Law
- Health Law
- Patent Law
- FDA Law
- Innovation in Pharmaceutical Technologies Seminar
- Areas of Expertise
- Health Law
- Patent Law
- Food & Drug Law
- Publications
- A New Framework for Drug Pricing Law and Policy, Ind. L.J. (forthcoming 2026).
- Venturing Into Health, Fordham L. Rev. (forthcoming 2026).
- Rethinking Innovation at FDA (with W. Nicholson Price II & Patricia J. Zettler), 104 B.U. L. Rev. 513 (2024).
- Cryptic Patent Reform Through the Inflation Reduction Act (with Arti K. Rai & W. Nicholson Price II), 37 Harv. J.L. & Tech 57 (2024).
- The Accidental Innovation Policymakers, 72 Duke L. J. 1431 (2023).
- The Role of State Attorneys General in Improving Prescription Drug Affordability (with Michelle M. Mello & Trish Riley), 95 S. Cal. L. Rev. 595 (2022).
- New Innovation Models in Medical AI (with W. Nicholson Price II & Rebecca S. Eisenberg), 99 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1121 (2022).
- Integrating Health Innovation Policy, 34 Harv. J.L. & Tech. 57 (2020).
- The Medicare Innovation Subsidy (with Mark Lemley & Lisa Larrimore Ouellette), 95 NYU L. Rev. 75 (2020).
- Regulating Intermediate Technologies, 37 Yale J. Reg. 219 (2020).
- The Uneasy Case for Patent Law, 117 Mich. L. Rev. 499 (2019).
- Delinking Reimbursement, 102 Minn. L. Rev. 2307 (2018).
- Administering Health Innovation, 39 Cardozo L. Rev. 1991 (2018).
- Prizing Insurance: Prescription Drug Insurance as Innovation Incentive, 30 Harv. J. L. & Tech. 153 (2016).
- Innovation Law and Policy: Preserving the Future of Personalized Medicine, 49 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1881 (2016).
- Diagnostic Method Patents and Harms to Follow-On Innovation, 126 Harv. L. Rev. 1370 (2013).
Additional publications outside of law reviews are listed on Professor Sachs’ CV, linked below.
- Activity and Affiliations
- Nonresident Fellow, The Brookings Institution
- Faculty Scholar, Washington University in St. Louis Institute for Public Health
- Editorial Board Member, Journal of Health Policy, Politics & Law
- Editorial Board Member, Health Affairs Scholar
- Download CV