Welcome to BIO 2025: Collaboration can't wait.

Welcome to BIO 2025!

As we kick off BIO 2025, the world’s largest biotech gathering, BIO emphasizes that collaboration can’t wait.

Today’s theme: Collaboration—between government and industry, and between companies through partnering, too. With 20,000+ registrants and over 60,000 partnering meetings already scheduled, participation is set to rival BIO 2024.

Why it matters: “The Massachusetts biotech industry produces an astonishing 15% of the entire U.S. drug development pipeline and employs nearly 117,000 people in high-skilled jobs,” write BIO President & CEO John F. Crowley and MassBio President & CEO Kendalle Burlin O’Connell in today’s Boston Globe. “But this engine of innovation and economic growth is under threat,” from funding cuts and tariffs to international competition.

How to follow BIO 2025:

• Follow Bio.News for panel recaps, exclusive Q&As, and much more.
• Join the conversation on X and LinkedIn, with hashtag #BIO2025. Watch for exclusive video content and repost-worthy quotes.
• Watch your inbox for highlights right here at 10 AM ET.

What we’re watching today: Biodefense will be the topic of a multi-panel morning session, featuring officials from the DoD, HHS Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), and other departments; a later session covers biosecurity countermeasures. U.S. officials will also join a panel on the Priority Review Voucher Program. We’ll also be keeping an eye on panels covering AI and women’s health.  

The biotech-focused provisions in the reconciliation bill prioritize R&D, patient affordability

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as passed by the House, includes bipartisan solutions that incentivize R&D while maximizing patient benefit.

What’s in it:

• The text of the ORPHAN Cures Act, a simple fix to one of the Inflation Reduction Act’s many serious flaws.
• The return of the immediate tax deduction of R&D costs—critical for an industry where companies can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on R&D without making a dime on revenue.
• Extensive PBM reform, including provisions that would delink PBM compensation from list prices. It would also bar spread pricing in Medicaid and increase transparency.
• Provisions in the Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act, which removes barriers that stand in the way of patients insured by Medicaid seeking care in other states.

What’s not in it: Further cuts to the Orphan Drug Tax Credit.

Why it matters: New data shows a strained innovation pipeline—and with 95% of rare diseases still without approved therapeutics, urgency is growing to pass the ORPHAN Cures Act, said patient advocates speaking during BIO’s recent virtual coffee chat on threats to early-stage drug development.

What they’re saying: “These are not just feel-good medications. Every single one of these… means that someone is going to live longer,” said Sara Jones of the Eosinophilic & Rare Disease Cooperative (ERDC). “With the ORPHAN Cures Act, you are basically supporting patients and their ability to access medications and treatments,” added Lisa Schlager, representing FORCE: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered.

What’s next: We expect to see the updated Senate Finance Committee language on Monday afternoon, and BIO will continue our advocacy work on this priority legislation.

Read more on Bio.News.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey named Governor of the Year

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, the 2025 BIO Governor of the Year, believes in investing in biotech, and people. She’ll be receiving her award at BIO 2025 on Tuesday.

Backing biotech: Gov. Healey’s extensive promotion of biotech includes recent passage of the Mass Leads Act, which will invest $1 billion in the Massachusetts life sciences sector—with $500 million to maintain the Life Sciences Initiative and $40 million in life sciences tax credits.

Backing people: “Under my leadership we’ve really invested extensively in job training programs, in educational grants, internships, professional development,” Gov. Healey tells Bio.News. Biotechs operating in Massachusetts “know that in our state they’re going to have access to the most educated workforce in the world.”

Massachusetts benefits: Massachusetts has long been a leader in biotech, with nearly 117,000 employed in the sector earning an average of $197,061 annually, according to MassBio.

Patients benefit: Massachusetts was home to 15.2% of the U.S. drug development pipeline, and its firms produced 21,386 bioscience-related patents between 2019 and 2023.

“I receive this recognition together with my team and partners and stakeholders across this ecosystem,” Gov. Healey says. “Boston’s leadership in the biotech industry is enabled by our unmatched universities, research institutions, businesses, and an incredible, talented, knowledgeable workforce.”

Read more on Bio.News.

What Else to Read This Week

Explore the “Next Frontier” of biotech, produced by BBC StoryWorks for BIO. The 13 new videos highlight biotechnology’s role in driving innovative solutions to the challenges facing society. Covered topics range from closing the gap in antibiotic access to reimagining cardiovascular health to innovations in pain management. Watch the series on BIO.org—or at the Storytelling Stage in the BIO 2025 Exhibit Hall.

Happy 45th birthday, Bayh-Dole! The Bayh-Dole Act enables greater public-private partnership, supercharging U.S. innovation and helping make America a leader in biotech. The Bayh-Dole Coalition, created with the dual purpose of celebrating the Act and protecting its goals, tackled both aspects of this mission June 4-5, with an awards ceremony and a day of advocacy on Capitol Hill. Read more on Bio.News.

BIO released the following statement on the June 11 announcement of all new members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices:

“We are greatly concerned by the abrupt dismissal of the ACIP members, and the loss of their years of experience.

“Members of the advisory committee historically participate in a months-long vetting process to assess and clear conflicts of interest and to evaluate their expertise in immunology and infectious disease. Additionally, they participate in reviews and working group discussions for months to understand and review data before participating in a public forum for deliberation and vote on vaccine recommendations.

“Politics should have no place in public health—in any administration. Selecting and installing an entirely new slate of committee members without full consideration of expertise or conflicts of interest is a concerning departure from a trusted process that has ensured science-based recommendations that have protected American health for decades and puts lives at risk.”

Beltway Report

The House has the week off and there are no major Senate hearings, but the Senate is expected to continue its discussion of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.