BIO Response to the Alexander/Burr report
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The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) thanks you for the opportunity to provide our initial thoughts on your report Innovation for Healthier Americans. BIO is the world's largest trade association representing biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products.</p>
The Honorable Lamar Alexander, Chairman
The Honorable Richard Burr
Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Chairman Alexander and Senator Burr:
The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) thanks you for the opportunity to provide our initial thoughts on your report Innovation for Healthier Americans. BIO is the world's largest trade association representing biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products.
Entrepreneurial biotechnology companies are at the cutting edge of a new and revolutionary understanding of the genetic and biomolecular underpinnings of disease, and are committed to developing the next generation of medicines to transform patient care; however, this goal can only be realized in a public policy environment that sustains scientific discovery and biomedical advancement. The future of medicine must harness 21st Century advancements in molecular biology and bioinformatics to promote innovation in therapies to diagnose, treat, and prevent disease.
The report has laid out five themes to characterize the issues that hold the key to encouraging innovation and improving the quality of life and outcomes for patients. BIO has developed proposals which align with the report’s themes, and which promise to transform our healthcare system. The following comments and attached proposals offer our ideas and recommendations to advance this goal...
