President Biden delivered his first State of the Union yesterday—here’s what caught our attention.
Prescription Drugs
The first point of his “plan to fight inflation”: “cut the cost of prescription drugs,” and specifically, “let Medicare negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs, like the VA already does.”
We'll say it again: price controls will harm patients and future cures.
COVID-19
He emphasized the importance of “vaccines and treatments,” specifically Pfizer’s anti-viral pill: “If you get COVID-19, the Pfizer pill reduces your chances of ending up in the hospital by 90%. We’ve ordered more of these pills than anyone in the world. And Pfizer is working overtime to get us 1 million pills this month and more than double that next month.”
“We must prepare for new variants,” he said. “If necessary, we’ll be able to deploy new vaccines within 100 days instead of many more months or years. And, if Congress provides the funds we need, we’ll have new stockpiles of tests, masks, and pills ready if needed.”
Reminder: COVID vaccines, therapeutics, and other medical breakthroughs “are possible only because of a regulatory and policy environment that supports investment in new treatments,”BIO’s Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath wrote in Modern Healthcare on Monday. “With scientists on the verge of so many breakthroughs, it'd be enormously counterproductive for policymakers to press forward with well-intentioned but poorly conceived legislation and executive actions—from weakening intellectual property protections to prohibiting companies from earning a return—that would cause private-sector investment in research endeavors to dry up.”
More Health Issues
President Biden outlined a few more health priorities including:
- “Beat the opioid epidemic,” by increasing “funding for prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery.“
- “Take on mental health.” The White House released a detailed fact sheet on the strategy earlier in the day.
- “Supercharge the Cancer Moonshot,” with the goal of cutting the cancer death rate by 50% over the next 25 years—we explained yesterday why the aforementioned drug price controls would harm this effort.
- “Fund ARPA-H, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health,” to address cancer and other diseases.
- "Cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month, so everyone can afford it.”
Wait, what about climate change?
Energy and climate change didn’t feature as prominently as we might have expected, though he did call for “revitalization of American manufacturing.” BIO shares President Biden’s commitment to bolstering domestic supply chains and tackling climate change, and will work to advance policies to bolster biobased manufacturing, deployment of sustainable fuels, and the development of innovative agricultural technologies for the benefit of farmers and consumers.
