October 18th, 2007
Today's Debate: Is Pharma pity party warranted?
Big pharma went to Weston, Florida, a town pulled out from what was the Everglades, and held a pity party this week.
Technically the event was the 10th BioFlorida conference, a celebration of networking for the state’s biotech industry.
But the report of Stephen Pounds in The Palm Beach Post sure reads like a pity party:
- 46 states enacted “anti-industry” legislation in the last year, complained Phrma lobbyist Christopher Badgley.
- Drug salesmen at Miami’s public hospital have to register as lobbyists.
- Washington is pressing the industry to allow “generic” versions of early biologic drugs.
- New Jersey is investigating payments made to doctors testing new drugs.
The industry faces drug-price controls, limits on patient access to new treatments, drug-safety concerns, mounting clinical-trial disclosure rules and changes to intellectual-property laws, Badgley concluded.
It’s not all bad. The industry admits to having attracted $47 billion in venture capital over the last year, and biotech firms now have $500 billion in capitalization. Yet they’re complaining.
Should they be?
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Subscribe to ZDNet Healthcare via Email alerts or RSS.
