Yesterday, Reps. Greg Murphy, M.D. (R-NC), Don Davis (D-NC) and Brett Guthrie introduced the Ensuring Pathways to Innovative Cures (EPIC Act), legislation to fix the “pill penalty.” BIO President and CEO, Rachel King, made the following statement: “The bipartisan introduction of the Ensuring Pathways to Innovative Cures (EPIC) Act is a critical step toward removing a punitive penalty on the development of small-molecule medicines, a vital class of treatments for patients around the globe. This legislation would fix a section of the Inflation Reduction Act and make certain that we are not disincentivizing the development of small molecule drugs that are often more accessible for patients.  “We need to ensure that public policy is keeping pace with the groundbreaking medical advances happening in labs across the country. We owe it to patients to make certain that these medical advances are not stifled by short-sighted public policy.  BIO strongly supports this important legislation, and we commend Representatives Murphy, Davis and Guthrie for their tireless work on behalf of patients and their continued efforts to make the U.S. a leader in medical innovation.”      

Today, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) released a new report, "The State of Innovation in Vaccines and Prophylactic Antibodies for Infectious Diseases," examining the latest scientific and investment trends in vaccine development. The global vaccine and immunization pipeline boasts nearly 250 novel clinical-stage programs but lacks the depth needed to combat many infectious pathogens, according to the report. "Our industry is working tirelessly to develop novel vaccines and antibodies for patients," said Rachel King, President and CEO of BIO. "This work has the potential to save lives, reduce health costs, and better prepare us for future public health threats. To ensure these scientific innovations continue to advance, we must make investing in vaccine development a greater priority." "We've seen incredible progress recently in areas like RSV and HPV, but unless there is more dedicated, persistent investment toward new vaccines, we'll fall behind," said David Thomas, Senior Vice President of Industry Research and Analysis at BIO and one of the report's authors. According to the report, the global vaccine development pipeline: Holds immense promise. Globally, the company-sponsored clinical pipeline for infectious disease vaccines consists of 249 active novel clinical-stage programs covering 31 infectious diseases for which there is no approved vaccine. Between 2013 and 2022, vaccines' likelihood of securing FDA approval from initial clinical studies has been higher than for other types of treatments. Has breadth, but not depth. Due to market issues that uniquely affect vaccines, just 10% of infectious disease threats addressed in the vaccine pipeline have 10 or more programs. Nearly 30% of the pipeline is for COVID-19. Lacks sufficient venture capital investment. In the past 10 years, companies with infectious disease vaccine programs received 3.4% of the total venture capital raised for biopharmaceutical companies ($6.5 billion). For…