President Bush asks biotech execs to support passage of
Project BioShield, Medicare prescription drug benefit
and medical liability tort reform

By Lorraine Ruff and David Gabrilska, Partners
Milestones, the critical thinking company
Seattle, WA

Remarks by the President at the Bio 2003 Convention Center and Exhibition
Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.

Washington, DC, June 23, 2003 - In a message packaged to appeal to biotech executives made humble by a 20-month down cycle in public equity and private investment, President George W. Bush called upon nearly 5,000 attendees at the kickoff luncheon of BIO’s 10th Annual Meeting and Convention to lobby the Congress to pass Project BioShield. The $6 billion over-10-years-program injects cash into research and development programs to make available vaccines and treatments to the American people to counter bioterror. The President’s plea followed a passionate reaffirmation of his Administration’s central focus to defeat terrorism. Complete text].

"Project BioShield will give our scientific leaders greater authority and more flexibility in decisions that may affect our national security," President Bush said. "Our labs will be able to hire the right experts, to buy the right equipment and to speed the construction of the right facilities to accelerate urgently needed discoveries."

 

As is often the case with "Big Science" programs, President Bush predicted that Project BioShield will have applications beyond its immediate goals.

"As scientists work to defeat the weapons of bioterror, I know they will gain new insights into the workings of other diseases. And this will also break new ground for the search for treatments and cures...and can provide great benefits for all humanity, especially in developing countries, where infectious diseases[3] often go uncontrolled," he said.

President Bush called upon European governments to end their boycott on the import of all new biotechnology crops.

"Your industry is also helping this country and the world to meet a second great challenge: sparing millions of people from starvation," he said. "America and other wealthy nations have a special responsibility to combat hunger, avert famine and disease in desperate lands...by sharing with them the most advance methods of crop production.

The President pointed out that Americans and developed nations see the benefits of biotech every day: food prices, good land conservation practices and crops that have been engineered for higher yield per acre and drought and pest resistance.

"These benefits have not yet reached developing nations in Africa and other lands where these innovations are now most needed," he said.

"Acting on unfounded, unscientific fears, many European governments have blocked the import of all new biotech crops. Because of these artificial obstacles many African nations avoid investing in biotechnology, worried that their products will be shut out of important European markets," President Bush said. "For the sake of a continent [Africa] threatened by famine, I urge the European governments to end their opposition to biotechnology. We should encourage the spread of safe, effective biotechnology to win the fight against global hunger," he said.

President Bush said the biotechnology industry faces a serious problem in getting drugs to patients, especially senior citizens. But he drew the line and specifically warned of the delays and inflexible limits on coverage that increased government intervention could provoke.

"Medicare was designed at a time when hospital stays were common and drug therapies were rare. Thanks to your efforts, there are drugs and other treatments that can dramatically reduce hospital stays which, in turn, improves quality of care and quality of life," President Bush said. "We have a responsibility to improve and strengthen Medicare by making modern medicine an integral part of the Medicare system, and that includes prescription drugs for all our seniors."

"Ask [the Senate and House of Representatives] to take a tough vote, if need be, to modernize a system which needs to be saved," he said $400 billion over the next 10 years in his FY 2004 budget, the most significant component of which is drug benefit for seniors.

A well received topic given the magnitude of applause, Bush asked the delegates for their help in encouraging the U.S. Senate to follow the lead of the U.S. House of Representatives who have passed a medical liability reform bill and a class action reform bill.

"We sue each other too much in the United States of America" President Bush said.

"For the sake of a balanced legal system, we need tort reform in Washington, D.C. I call upon the United States Senate to pass meaningful liability and class action suit reforms now."

President Bush obliquely referenced the reproductive/therapeutic cloning issue by reminding men and women of science that they have accepted a moral calling to improve and save lives. While he admonished delegates that "this calling requires a deep respect for the value of every life," he avoided specific reference and the opportunity to further elucidate a branch of science so fundamental to the amelioration of serious diseases of aging.

It occurs to us that he would have been in excellent company to do so on the heels of the AMA’s recent endorsement of therapeutic cloning that involves the use of stem cells derived from cloned human embryos. In adopting the policy, the American Medical Association said such research was clearly consistent with medical ethics.

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[1] After an essentially completed five-year doubling campaign involving 15 percent increases for each of the past five years, growth in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget would slow sharply to just 2.7 percent in FY 2004 from just-approved FY 2003 level, to $27.9 billion. NIH research (basic and applied) would increase 7.0 percent to $26.9 billion, greater than the 2.7 percent increase for the overall NIH budget, because NIH would discontinue most of its FY 2003 facilities funding and shift the money to research in FY 2004. NIH R&D, including facilities funding, would rise 2.7 percent to $26.9 billion, slightly ahead of the 1.9 percent projected inflation rate. Source: NIH Budget Growth Slows to 2 Percent in FY 2004 (PDF file).

[2] Venture capital investment in the Life Sciences sector (Biotechnology and Medical Devices) totaled $4.7 billion in 2002, accounting for 22% of all venture capital investing, up from 13% in 2001, and the highest proportion of total venture capital in seven years. Separately, the Biotechnology industry attracted $2.8 billion in 2002 and the Medical Devices industry accounted for $1.9 billion in 2002. Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers/Venture Economics/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Survey, Jan. 28, 2003 (PDF file).

[3] In FY 2004, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) would receive a boost of 17.0 percent to $4.3 billion as NIH's lead institute for its $1.6 billion bioterrorism R&D portfolio. In final FY 2003 appropriations, Congress recently boosted the NIAID budget 47 percent over the FY 2002 funding level to $3.7 billion. Source: NIH Budget Growth Slows to 2 Percent in FY 2004 (PDF file).

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