Every year, thousands of Americans are diagnosed with ALS, a fatal neurodegenerative disease.

It takes a person's ability to move their arms and legs, to speak and swallow, and eventually to breathe. It can eventually take one's mind.

A diagnosis of ALS is devastating, and most people with ALS live only a few years.

But there is hope.

Many small biotech companies, including mine, are working on remarkable new technologies to try to treat and even cure ALS. And there's a good chance you are helping us.

Here's how. If you're saving for retirement, as millions of working Americans are, there's a good chance some of your savings is invested in biotechnology and maybe even indirectly in my company. So thank you.

I know that investors are investing for their financial security and hope my product will be profitable. I hope so too. But profitable doesn't mean unaffordable thanks to insurance.

Insurance is possible because you and I and most Americans pay premiums. Our premiums make it possible for novel medicines to be both profitable and affordable. Only 8% of what we pay each month in insurance premiums goes towards novel branded medicines, creating the incentives for investment in work like ours.

So thank you and thanks to everyone who makes that possible. But insurance in America doesn't always do what it promises. Some patients can't afford their medicines because of unaffordable high out-of-pocket costs. Congress is talking about capping those costs, which is the right idea.

We certainly aren't inventing new medicines for anyone to be denied access to them. Unfortunately, some people, including some members of Congress, think that the way to help patients afford treatment is by letting the government control the prices of novel medicines.

The problem is that price controls drive investors away, and that's the case not only in biotechnology, but in any industry. If the reward for successfully developing a medicine is a government price control, I know my investors will invest elsewhere. I can't blame them. They're looking out for their hard-earned savings.

And price controls on novel medicines won't even save America money because what's special about medicines is they go generic. Novel medicines are branded until their patents expire. After that, they drop in price and cost America very little.

If we stop investing in the pursuit of cures for ALS, we'll be stuck having to manage this disease with hospitals. And those costs only climb—hospitals never go generic.

So if we stop investing, millions of Americans will go on suffering, missing work and relying on caregivers, and losing precious time with loved ones. And our insurance premiums, which largely go to pay for hospitals and seeing doctors will continue to climb.

So let's hope that Congress does not resort to price controls that turn investors away from research like ours, but instead, caps out-of-pocket costs for patients. Insurance reform is a solution that will allow all of us by investing, paying premiums, and doing science to create new affordable medicines together.

So again, thank you. Thank you for your support, for helping to make breakthroughs by companies like ours possible. Thank you for helping us strive to bring new treatments to people who desperately need them. Thank you for being part of this massive team effort to build a healthier, happier, more productive future.

And every time you check your retirement account or see that insurance deduction on your paycheck, we hope you don't just see the numbers, but also the promise of scientific progress. We hope you'll see the brighter, healthier future that you're helping to build.

So again, thank you.