2 Ways to Strengthen America’s Biomedical Infrastructure
By: Priscilla VanderVeer
Countries with strong R&D and domestic manufacturing capacity are hard to pressure and displace. Yet it would be impossible to do R&D entirely within one country’s borders.
So while U.S. firms lead more than half of R&D worldwide, Europe, Japan, Australia, China, and others still contribute to biopharmaceutical research. There just aren’t enough patients in a single country to get large enough clinical trial populations for R&D. Innovation needs to remain a global enterprise.
But that doesn’t mean the United States should be passive about our role in it.
We should ensure that medicines that work into the standard of care are never put at risk by supply chain disruption, whether due to a pandemic shutting down shipping, geopolitics, or shortages.
It makes good sense for us to encourage manufacturing of medicines both here and in countries where shipment is unlikely to be disrupted by geopolitics or natural disasters. That can better insulate America’s biomedical supply chain from instability. But shifting supply chains is a challenging process, so any policy must incorporate enough lead time to create the infrastructure and workforce necessary to achieve this.
And we should constantly strive to be the most attractive environment for preclinical and clinical development.
That means ensuring a strong, predictable, and transparent regulatory process that supports small and emerging innovators, not just large sponsors. We should enforce timelines, streamline standards, improve communication and transparency, and build a digital-first approach that reflects the latest technology and innovative approaches. And we should oppose ideas like “Most Favored Nation” policies and government price setting that deter innovation.
In short, we need to be intentional about inventing and manufacturing medicines both here and abroad. That can help ensure global collaboration against a universal adversary (disease), while still protecting American patient access to life-saving medicines from supply chain disruption.
Read more here: https://www.nopatientleftbehind.org/fundamentals