In a new video, Alex Karnal, a life science investor and partner at Deerfield Management, shares why investing in new cures and treatments is personal, and he explains how President Trump’s plan to import foreign price controls would have an “absolutely chilling” effect on investments in transformational, life-saving therapies.    “President Trump, we have got to lower drug prices at the pharmacy counter right now. In order to do that, we need four key groups to come together … and derive a holistic solution to treat the disease versus using foreign reference pricing as a scheme to focus on a single symptom.” To learn more about the flaws of importing foreign price controls, visit bio.org/save-cures. Additional resources: The Challenges and Risks of Adopting Foreign Price Controls Oncologist Warns of IPI’s Potentially Dangerous Implications Despite Administration’s “Sky-High Rhetoric,” Importing Foreign Price Controls Will Harm Innovation and Patient Access Issue Brief: International Reference Pricing ###

Rachel King is co-founder and CEO of GlycoMimetics, a biotech company based in Rockville, Maryland that is working hard to develop new treatments for patients with various diseases of the blood. In a new video, Mrs. King explains why President Trump’s plan to impose foreign price controls on certain medicines would “directly inhibit” the ability of small biotech startups to attract the investments necessary to bring new cures and treatments to patients. Mrs. King adds the international reference pricing is “not the right way” to lower prescription drugs costs and calls on the president to ensure America continues to lead the world in biomedical innovation.  “Investors can put their money wherever they want to. Investors can put their money into apps, they can put them into cell phones, they can put them into IT … or they can put their money into developing new drugs.   “If we change the incentives and if we decrease the incentives for investing in new drugs, the money will flow out of the biotechnology industry and the United States risks losing its lead position in biotechnology.” To learn more about the flaws of importing foreign price controls, visit bio.org/save-cures.  

WASHINGTON DC., January 30, 2020 – The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) today released “Measuring Diversity in the Biotech Industry: Building an Inclusive Workforce,” the most comprehensive report on diversity and inclusion in the biotech industry. Based on a survey of biotech companies, the report looks at where companies stand on representation in terms of gender and race/ethnicity – and assesses the steps they are taking to improve diversity and inclusion.The report analyzes data from a survey of nearly 100 BIO member companies, conducted online from May to June 2019. The findings show that while responding companies are approaching gender parity, with 45% female employees overall, this near balance shrinks at the higher levels – with 30% female executives and 18% female board members. Representation of people of color is slightly lower, at 32% overall. Again, this number lessens at the higher levels – 15% of executives and 14% of board members are people of color.“BIO will continue to publish an annual survey to track industry progress as it works to expand representation at all levels,” said Joanne Duncan, BIO's President of Membership and Business Operations Division. “BIO has developed resources available at RightMixMatters.org such as BIO’s Diversity and Inclusion toolkit and the BIO Boardlist, that aim to help biotech companies achieve their diversity and inclusion goals. These resources can be particularly helpful for smaller companies that don’t have the staffing or resources to dedicate to diversity and inclusion efforts.”Overall, the findings show that pre-revenue, smaller, and private companies have made progress in increasing representation. Pre-revenue organizations are more likely than profitable organizations to have people of color make up one-quarter of their executive level workforce – and are also more likely to have a female CEO. In addition, small organizations are more likely to have a female CEO, while privately held…