BIO report highlights drugs for seniors

The Biotechnology Industry Organization released a study Thursday that highlights the current and anticipated positive impacts of biotech-based therapies on diseases of the elderly. Speaking at a Capital Hill press conference, the co-chairs of the Congressional Biotechnology Caucus said the report eloquently supports the argument that Medicare prescription drug benefit legislation that impairs private sector innovation will deprive seniors of valuable therapies. The report "gives cause for myself and my colleagues to focus on an important component of the prescription drug benefit debate that has been absent," said Rep. Calvin Dooley (D-Calif.). "We have to make sure that when we move forward with a prescription drug policy that we aren't putting in place a system that will impede the flow of risk capital" to biotech companies.

Rep. Robert Ehrlich (R-Md.) said that "getting the public to understand where these drugs come from and how much it costs (to develop drugs) is a challenge in the current political environment." He added that both parties have used "inappropriate demagoguery" to vilify drug companies and have failed to balance the cost of breakthrough therapies with "the prohibitive cost of debilitating disease." ...