BIO leaders Joshua Boger and Jim Greenwood discuss challenges and opportunities for the biotech industry in the Obama Administration and the new Congress

In BIOtech Now's exclusive interview with Dr. Joshua Boger [2] (Chairman and CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Incorporated and Chairman of BIO [3]) and James C. Greenwood [4] (President & CEO of BIO), these two leaders of the world's largest biotech association discuss the challenges and opportunities ahead for the biotech industry in 2009. Their conversation covers how BIO is engaging with the Obama Administration and the expanded Democratic majorities in Congress, top policy priorities for 2009, and the effects of the current financial crisis on biotech investment and innovation. This program is 52 minutes long. Here is quick guide to the topics covered in this wide-ranging conversation:

• 00:00 Introduction and overview of policy challenges and opportunities for the biotech industry in 2009.
• 11:18 Reversing the Bush Administration policy on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research [5]
• 15:09 Expansion of children's health coverage (S-CHIP)
• 21:06 Comprehensive health care reform will not come quickly
• 24:11 Hope for creating a sound regulatory pathway for follow-on biologics [6]
• 32:21 The critical importance of maintaining strong patent protections
• 36:24 How to get comparative effectiveness [7] right, and how it can go wrong
• 40:48 New opportunities for advancing biofuels [8] development under President Obama
• 42:24 Impact of the financial crisis on the biotech industry
• 47:28 New opportunities for the biotech industry and cause for optimism in an era of change

Download or listen to the BIOtech Now podcast. [9]