Good Day BIO: How can Congress support U.S. biomedical innovation?

The Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee held a hearing on U.S. biomedical innovation—here’s what Members and witnesses said about the industry and drug pricing proposals. Meanwhile, we’re still concerned about Mexico’s treatment of biotech—including what it means for animal feed. (817 words, 4 minutes, 5 seconds)

How can Congress support U.S. biomedical innovation?

A House subcommittee yesterday praised U.S. biomedical innovation and leadership, especially in response to COVID-19. But this raises an important question: Why is Congress pushing drug pricing policy that would harm the very industry that has helped save lives and the economy?

“What can we do to accelerate innovation to improve the health and lives of every American?” asked House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Chair Anna Eshoo (D-CA) kicking off the December 8 hearing, The Future of Biomedicine: Translating Biomedical Research into Personalized Healthcare. What should Congress invest in “to accelerate innovation for the betterment of the American people in the third decade of the 21st century?”

It’s been 20 years since the publication of the landmark Human Genome Project research, she noted, which led to “groundbreaking scientific breakthroughs.”

Breakthroughs like the mRNA vaccines for COVID-19—which “underscore the extraordinary return on basic science investments,” said Dr. Lloyd B. Minor, Dean of Stanford University School of Medicine. “Beyond the hundreds of thousands of lives saved, these vaccines—built on decades of research—are blunting the pandemic’s financial burden.” 

Members on both sides agreed on the need to support biomedical innovation, especially for areas of unmet medical needs—but there were sharp political divides over drug pricing policies under consideration in the Build Back Better Act. 

“We cannot talk about advancing health care innovation without addressing the harmful drug pricing provisions” in Build Back Better,said Subcommittee Ranking Member Brett Guthrie (R-KY), citing a new University of Chicago study finding these provisions would decrease R&D investments by $660 billion through 2039, leading to 135 fewer drugs brought to market. 

Several Members agreed—with Rep. John Curtis (R-UT) expressing concern about the impact on the ability of small life sciences companies to get investment to work on diseases like ALS (around 2:45:00), and Rep. John Joyce (R-PA), a medical doctor, saying price controls would “cripple this innovation, especially with regard to rare diseases” (around 3:20:00).

One potentially better solution: “Payment structures based on patient outcomes,” particularly for precision medicines, said Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK)—watch the exchange.  

There’s a lot to unpack—including the importance of clinical trial diversity and real-world evidence and patient experience data, the Bayh-Dole Act, and the proposed Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). Watch the whole thing.

More Health Care News:

The New York Times: The world is unprepared for the next pandemic, report says
“The latest Global Health Security Index finds that no country is positioned well to respond to outbreaks.”

Why Mexico’s GM corn decision may harm the animal feed industry

Mexico’s failure to honor ag biotech trade commitments could do a lot of damage—to investment in future innovations, to global efforts to address climate change, even to food and animal feed supply chains, says BIO’s VP of International Affairs Matt O’Mara. 

To catch you up: Since 2018, “Mexico has failed to maintain a science-based approval process by arbitrarily delaying the scientific risk assessment for as many as 25 biotech products across a wide range of commodities,” says O’Mara in a blog post for the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA). 

But it gets worse: In 2020, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador pledged to prohibit imports of biotech corn by 2024, and this fall, Mexico issued an unprecedented rejection of a GMO corn permit from Bayer Crop Sciences and is determining whether the ban would apply to animal feed, too. 

It not only undermines the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), but would be “catastrophic for both countries,” continues O’Mara. Mexico relies heavily on American corn, and without innovations like gene editing, climate change threatens Mexico’s domestic crop production. 

What should we do? “Rather than fighting a prolonged battle over proven technology, it is time to build on the benefits of the robust U.S.-Mexico trade relationship and implement USMCA in a way that helps both countries build greener, more resilient agricultural sectors,” concludes O’Mara. 

Read the whole thing.

President Biden’s Thursday: This morning, he hosted the virtual Summit for Democracy, which brings together government, civil society, and private sector leaders from around the world. He’ll speak at a Congressional tribute to the late Sen. Bob Dole before meetings about Russia and Ukraine with Eastern European counterparts. At 3:30 PM ET, he’ll meet with the White House COVID-19 Response Team to hear the latest on the Omicron variant. 

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: The Senate yesterday passed a (largely symbolic) rebuke of the Biden administration’s workplace vaccine mandate, reports POLITICO. Meanwhile, the House voted 428-1 to “ban a wide array of imported products made in China’s Xinjiang region, moving over the strong objections of large corporations to crack down on companies sourcing goods produced through forced labor by persecuted Muslim minorities,” reports The New York Times. Today, the Senate Parliamentarian is expected to examine the climate provisions of Build Back Better, per POLITICO Pro, while the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis will look at the provisions specifically for clean energy investments.