Good Day BIO: Will Biden renew the call for price controls?

Will President Biden talk about drug price controls during the State of the Union? We’ll find out tonight. Plus, the new IPCC report says climate change is happening faster than we thought—but thanks to biotech, adaptation is already underway. (548 words, 2 minutes, 44 seconds)

Will Biden renew the call for price controls?

President Biden’s State of the Union is tonight—and we hear he might renew the call for drug price controls. Before you get swept up in the rhetoric, we want to remind you, again, why drug price controls won’t work.

ICYMI: President Biden has called for allowing Medicare to set prices of certain prescription drugs, repeating myths about the high cost of U.S. drug prices—which actually fell in 2021. 

What would be the impact of price controls? As many as 56 drugs developed by small U.S. biotechs would never have been approved if similar price controls in H.R. 3 had been enacted for 10 years, found a Vital Transformation study (supported by BIO).

What about that cancer moonshot? BIO welcomes the initiative, as we said—but drug price controls could put Biden’s cancer agenda at risk, too.

In fact, price controls would have the largest impact on cancer treatments,per the Vital Transformation study. Of the 56 “lost” drugs, 16 would have been for cancers including chronic myeloid leukemia, lymphoblastic leukemia, ovarian cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and Hodgkin’s & non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Read: How price controls hurt patients

Hey, this sounds familiar…President Trump was scrambling for similar price controls ahead of the State of the Union in 2020—despite the fact that his own economic advisors said the proposal would make us miss as many as 100 new drugs.

So, what’s next? The State of the Union airs live at 9 PM ET/6 PM PT. We’ll be watching and report back tomorrow.

Climate change is happening, fast – but biotech's already on it

Climate change is happening faster than we thought and we need to take action to adapt, says a new report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Luckily, biotech’s already on the case.

The key finding: For 127 climate-related risks, “mid- and long-term impacts are up to multiple times higher than currently observed,” says the IPCC report released yesterday—and “projected adverse impacts and related losses and damages escalate with every increment of global warming.”

What do we do? “The magnitude and rate of climate change and associated risks depend strongly on near-term mitigation and adaptation actions,” says the study, authored by 270+ researchers from 67 countries.

What is adaptation? It’s “reducing climate risks and vulnerability mostly via adjustment of existing systems,” explains the report.

So, for example…switching from fossil fuels to low-carbon, renewable fuels, or developing biomanufacturing and bioplastics to replace petroleum-based products and processes.

Biotech has solutions for many of the adaptation options in the report—from sustainable aquaculture and fisheries (hello, AquaBounty!), to improved cropland management (thanks to gene editing), and more efficient livestock systems (thanks again to gene editing to reduce disease in pigs and methane emissions in cattle).

In short, we need to adapt—but biotech’s already on it. While the headlines sound scary, the good news is climate change solutions are already underway.

President Biden’s Tuesday: He’ll give the State of the Union live at 9 PM ET.

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: Before the State of the Union, the House is expected to vote on H.R. 3967, which would address toxic exposure among veterans. The House Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing on Title I of the Farm Bill, and the House Education & Labor HELP Subcommittee will hold a hearing on improving retirement security and access to mental health benefits.