Tens of millions of Americans are living with liver disease, which can be caused by heavy alcohol use, a viral infection, a genetic disorder, or problems with a person's metabolism. It often goes undiagnosed for years until the liver starts to fail. Many cases can be managed with medicines and diet, but some progress anyway. There are 10,000 liver transplants in the US each year, but far more people aren't lucky enough to match with an organ donor and die of their disease.

But there is hope.

Many small biotech companies, including mine, are working on remarkable new technologies that we hope will someday allow us to better treat and even cure liver disease. And there's a good chance you're 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 my 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 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. 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 are 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 that they go generic. Novel medicines are branded until their patents expire. After that, they drop in price and cost America very little, but they still keep us healthy and out of hospitals.

If we stop investing in the pursuit of cures for liver disease, we will be stuck having to manage these diseases with hospitals. And the burden on the healthcare system will grow as more patients require hospital-based care that offers limited hope. And those costs only climb—hospitals never go generic.

If we stop investing, millions of Americans will go on suffering, missing work and relying on caregivers. 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 the 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 numbers, but the promise of scientific progress. We hope you'll see the brighter and healthier future that you are helping to build.

So again, thank you.