Today, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) announced an extension through June 2029 to its established agreement with Avantor. Through this agreement, members across North America have access to a broad portfolio of products and services—including laboratory supplies, chemicals, life sciences tools, equipment, chromatography, safety supplies, cleanroom products, and more. Avantor is a preferred supplier partner of BIO Business Solutions®. “BIO is extremely pleased to extend our 23-year long program with Avantor, which has proven itself with consistent growth. Avantor’s exceptional service provides value critical for the thousands of life science companies participating in the BIO Business Solutions® program,” said BIO President and CEO Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath. “As a global supplier of discovery-to-delivery solutions for the entire biotech ecosystem, Avantor’s services allow innovators to preserve capital and focus on the science that will improve and save lives.” The extended agreement aggregates the purchasing power of BIO’s member and affiliate member companies and drives significant value.    “For more than 23 years, Avantor has been proud to collaborate with BIO Business Solutions and we’re pleased to play a critical role in helping members develop scientific breakthroughs,” said Frederic Vanderhaegen, Executive Vice President, Americas and Europe. “Our broad portfolio is used in virtually every stage of the most important research, development and production activities in the industries we serve and provides scientists with all they need to create life-changing treatments for patients. We offer everything from high purity products to equipment and instrumentation to services optimizing scientific workflows. Looking ahead, we are excited about what we can accomplish together.”    To learn more about the benefits of BIO…

Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath, president and CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), released the following statement in response to the White House's support of waiving critical intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines: "We are extremely disappointed that the Administration has chosen to support waiving critical protections for American ingenuity and to delay the equitable delivery of needed COVID vaccines to people around the globe. "Handing needy countries a recipe book without the ingredients, safeguards, and sizable workforce needed will not help people waiting for the vaccine. Handing them the blueprint to construct a kitchen that - in optimal conditions - can take a year to build will not help us stop the emergence of dangerous new COVID variants. The better alternative would have been to follow through on the President’s pledge just last week to make the United States the world’s “arsenal of vaccines”.  This policy leads in the opposite direction. "Today’s decision is especially disheartening after BIO put forward a list of policy solutions that would  establish the COVID Global Strategy for Harnessing Access Reaching Everyone (SHARE) Program. "The Global SHARE Program would ensure sufficient global supply of vaccines, ensure safe and expeditious global access to vaccines and therapeutics, and bolster ongoing efforts to strengthen and support healthcare systems in low-and middle-income countries in addressing COVID. It would accomplish these goals without compromising protections for intellectual property or further stretching limited global vaccine expertise to the breaking point. "And all of this while we have yet to fulfill our existing commitment to the international COVAX vaccine donation program. "BIO has warned on several occasions that the TRIPS waiver has the potential to drastically hinder existing efforts to scale up global manufacturing, disrupt efforts to equitably distribute the…