John Murphy is the Vice President of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), the largest trade association in the world representing biotechnology companies. John’s role encompasses all legal issues impacting healthcare biotechnology and is an expert on topical issues such as intellectual property, drug pricing, and legislation in the biopharma sector.

In this podcast we discuss the drug pricing proposals included in President Biden’s signature legislation, Build Back Better. While many in the general public feel that it’s only fair that Medicare start to negotiate drug pricing similar to what is done in the EU to control the out of pocket costs of medicines, John Murphy highlights what this would mean practically for the biotech sector, highlighting that even if drug price controls appear reasonable on the surface, there are inevitable trade-offs. Build Back Better will likely place severe constraints on the global innovation ecosystem in the development of needed therapies for orphan conditions as well as for diseases like oncology and Alzheimer’s disease.

The discussion also highlights the need for a robust private sector to take-on the risks of development, and how many proposals such as the new $3 bil innovation public private partnership called ARPA-H are not likely to lead to meaningful leaps in innovation. Further, we discuss the implications of ‘Operation Warp Speed’, and how the possibility to rapidly deliver needed mRNA vaccines to market in only 9 months could serve as a blueprint for addressing seemingly intractable issues such as antimicrobial resistance.

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