Milestones 2004

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OUTREACH: GRASSROOTS

It often takes a hometown touch to get the attention of a member of Congress: a tour of a biotech facility, a call from a constituent or an op-ed in the local paper. BIO works with member companies and outside groups to make sure congressional leaders understand the impact of legislation or regulations on their constituents.

"Our goal is to bring biotech to the leadership and vice versa," says John Sloan, BIO's director of grassroots initiatives. "With the exception of coastal representatives, lawmakers usually don't know what biotech is or that it's in their state."

BIO's grassroots activities are wide-ranging and include

• The annual BIO Legislative Day Fly-In, which brings about 200 biotech executives to Washington for a day of visits with members of Congress and administration officials.
• Tours of biotech facilities for congressional staffers.
• Capitol Hill briefings about biotech issues.
• Alerts to BIO members when key legislation is nearing a vote.
• Maintenance of the Legislative Action Center, an online service that allows BIO members to contact members of Congress about biotech issues.

BIO steps up the pressure when a specific issue is in play, calling on constituent CEOs and state affiliates to contact their representatives and senators. In 2003, these efforts were crucial to finding co-sponsors for biotech tax-reform legislation and to winning legislative support to restore venture-capital-backed firms' eligibility for Small Business Innovation Research grants.

PATIENT GROUPS

Patient groups have been BIO's natural grassroots allies on a wide array of health-care issues, from renewing the orphan drug tax credit to ensuring Medicare coverage for innovative drugs. But developing the relationships that foster such issue-specific alliances takes time, thought and ongoing cultivation — whether or not a hot issue is in play at the moment.

In 2003, BIO educated patient groups about plant-made pharmaceuticals and Medicare legislation. Patient support was pivotal to persuading legislators to partially reverse deep cuts in Medicare payments for biotech drugs used in hospital outpatient settings (see Health Care).

Relationships with patient groups can benefit individual biotechnology companies more directly as well, says BIO Director of Patient Outreach Michael Losow. Many groups are eager to help companies identify patients for clinical trials and, where needs are unmet by current products, may even support a product's approval at the FDA.

"These groups understand how to design trials and ensure patients participate," Losow says.

To help companies make such connections, BIO hosted the Health Research Opportunity Forum at the BIO 2003 convention in June. The one-day event featured a series of workshops and exhibits designed to bring together biotechnology companies' chief science officers and research and medical specialists in the nonprofit world.

Expanding Outreach
BIO is expanding its health-care outreach efforts to include women's groups, minority groups and health-care providers. The organization has commissioned a study on minority participation in clinical trials to document participation levels and make recommendations for boosting minority recruitment. The report is expected in April 2004.

RELIGIOUS LEADERS

Dr. Bob Edgar (left), general secretary of the National Council of Churches, and BIO President Carl B. Feldbaum signed a memorandum of understanding committing their organizations to a collaborative relationship.

BIO's outreach efforts extend to one of the largest communities in American life: people of faith. In June 2003, two years after initiating a dialogue with religious leaders, BIO President Carl B. Feldbaum signed a memorandum of understanding with Dr. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches.

The agreement — which calls for maintaining open channels of communication and developing collaborative programs — largely formalizes an existing relationship between BIO and the United States' largest ecumenical organization. Dr. Edgar has spoken at two BIO conventions and participated in BIO's private roundtable discussions with religious leaders.

Those roundtables also have included representatives of the Muslim, Jewish, Catholic and Buddhist faiths, who gathered to explore religious concerns about stem cell research and other applications of biotechnology. The results include the new partnership with the National Council of Churches and BIO's global health initiative to address diseases of the developing world.

Although the initial focus was on biomedical research, the dialogue has expanded to agricultural issues, such as environmental concerns and the potential for biotechnology to fight hunger and malnutrition. BIO and the National Council of Churches are planning a symposium on biotech food issues in the spring of 2004.