Good Day BIO: Live from San Diego...plus, today's biotech news.

The BIO International Convention is here—in person! We kick off with an exclusive preview of BIO’s diversity report, a forthcoming book on the orphan drug revolution, and how to follow our coverage—including our Good Day BIO LIVE! morning news show. All of that plus today’s news below. (928 words, 4 minutes, 38 seconds)

How to follow the BIO International Convention

Team Good Day BIO is excited to be on the ground in San Diego to bring you all the news and highlights from the BIO International Convention. Follow our coverage at Good Day BIO and Bio.News and join the conversation on social media with #BIO2022.

This Monday-Thursday at 7 AM PT (10 AM ET), we'll also air our convention morning news show, Good Day BIO LIVE!, hosted by television journalist Tetiana Anderson and featuring exclusive reporting and interviews from Team Good Day BIO. Watch our inaugural episode here:

But first – today's news headlines on TRIPS, price controls, and POET's climate goals

BIO International Convention’s not the only thing happening this week. Before we dive into convention content, here’s your news.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) 12th Ministerial is happening now through Wednesday—and there could be an agreement on the proposed waiver of COVID vaccine intellectual property rights, reports IPWatchdog. We'll be watching and report back. 

BIO member POET expects half of their biofuel plants to reach their climate goals early,reports Reuters. POET pledged its biofuel would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 70% compared to gasoline by 2030; now, they’ll reach 75%.

How they’ll do it: They’re partnering with Navigator CO2 Ventures LLC to capture and store 5 million metric tons of POET’s carbon annually in 18 bioprocessing facilities in Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota by 2025, POET announced last week.

And the drug price debate continues—with those in favor of price controls continuing to make “misleading statements that perpetuates misconceptions about an industry whose success is critical for the world’s health,” writes John LaMattina, former President of Pfizer Global R&D, in Forbes. 

The facts: “In 2021, the top twenty biopharmaceutical companies invested over $140 billion in R&D. And that is just 20 companies. (For perspective, the total budget for the National Institutes of Health is $62 billion.)”

A sneak peek at BIO’s new report on industry diversity

BIO will release its third-annual report measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the biotech industry—and we got an early look.

The key finding: The biotech industry has made progress on gender parity, but more work is needed on racial and ethnic diversity, says BIO’s forthcoming report, Measuring Diversity in the Biotech Industry: Tracking Progress in Small and Large Companies. 

5 fast facts from our sneak peek:

1. Women now make up 49% of employees, an increase from 47% in 2020 and 45% in 2019…
2. But women still only make up 34% of executive teams and 20% of CEOs.
3. Employees of color make up 38% of all employees, but only 24% of executive teams and 28% of CEOs.
4. More than 4 in 10 companies increased representation of executives of color by more than 5%.
5. Most organizations (nearly 80%) indicate that attracting, recruiting, and promoting diverse talent are priorities of their DEI programs.

About the report: Produced in partnership with Coqual, the report analyzes the findings from a voluntary survey of 99 BIO member companies fielded from November 2021 to January 2022. 

Are you in San Diego? Join us for Best Practices for Building an Inclusive Biotech Company, at 1:00 PM PT, Upper Level, Session Room 2, where speakers from across the industry will discuss how to build inclusive companies and what it means for innovation. We'll have coverage in Bio.News.

‘Inside the Orphan Drug Revolution’ – plus, what else we're watching today

Congress passed the Orphan Drug Act 40 years ago—spurring what biotech expert and author Jim Geraghty calls a “revolution” of patient-centered biotechnology. He looks at the impact in his forthcoming book—and we have an excerpt on Bio.News. 

There are about 7,000 identified “orphan,” or rare, diseases—which, combined, affect more than 300 million people, or as much as 6% of the world’s population.

The Orphan Drug Act was passed in 1983—incentivizing development of 400+ treatments for rare diseases, giving hope and a new life to millions of patients around the world suffering from diseases like Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Batten disease, spinal muscular atrophy, and more. 

But recently, Congress has considered changes to the Orphan Drug Tax Credit,which could disincentivize needed research, especially by small biotechs focused exclusively on rare diseases and rare cancers. 

In the forthcoming book Inside the Orphan Drug Revolution, author and a board director of five NASDAQ-listed biotech companies Jim Geraghty looks at the origin of the Orphan Drug Act and its impact—read an excerpt on Bio.News.

Are you in San Diego? Join us for the session, Fireside Chat: A Discussion on the Orphan Drug Revolution, at 1:00 PM PT, Upper Level, Session Room 10. Author Jim Geraghty will be in conversation with BIO Chairman Paul Hastings, President and CEO of Nkarta Therapeutics, Inc. about the importance of the Orphan Drug Act and challenges to it.

What else we’re watching today: High-level government officials from half a dozen nations will discuss how to spur biotech innovation in a session sponsored by Merck. Experts will discuss the growing women’s health market—and how to ensure it's strong and sustainable, sponsored by Organon. We’ll also watch sessions on biotech’s role in ESG, biopharma sustainability, and achieving global health equity. And if you’re in San Diego, we hope to see you at the welcome reception at 5 PM PT!

President Biden’s Monday: He’ll sign into law H.R. 3525, which will take the first steps towards a potential National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture. ICYMI, the White House outlined plans for distributing COVID vaccines to children under five in preparation for their expected authorization, which could come as early as this week. 

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: Tomorrow, we’re watching the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee markup of prescription drug user fee reauthorization—we’ll report back Wednesday.