The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) held a hearing on October 29 titled “The Future of Biotech: Maintaining U.S. Competitiveness and Delivering Lifesaving Cures to Patients.” Members of the committee, along with several witnesses, recognized biotechnology as not only a vital component of healthcare innovation that impacts millions of Americans, but also a driver of national security and economic growth.
Opening Remarks
Senator Bill Cassidy, MD (R-LA), Chair of the HELP Committee, opened the hearing with a reflection on how innovation has revolutionized healthcare, from simple pharmaceutical treatments to life-changing surgeries. Cassidy applauded America’s global leadership in biomedical discovery and called for policy reforms to sustain this leadership by modernizing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) frameworks, supporting AI and emerging technologies. He concluded by aligning these reforms with President Trump’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) initiative.
In his initial remarks, Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-VT) expressed concerns regarding how the pharmaceutical industry’s pricing practices and political power contribute to unaffordable medications and restrict access for many Americans, making it harder for patients to get the treatments they need. He cited that “U.S. prices for newly-launched pharmaceuticals more than doubled” in the past four years (Reuters), and that since the Trump Administration took office in January, prices for 688 prescription drugs have increased. Biotechnology is used extensively in the pharmaceutical industry to develop new drugs, yet the newest advancements make little difference in the health of Americans if they are highly unaffordable.
Cassidy went on to introduce the panel of witnesses, who each emphasized in their testimonies the importance of strengthening the FDA, ensuring robust funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and improving affordability for patients:
- Lowell Schiller, JD, Nonresident Senior Scholar at the USC Schaeffer Institute
- John Crowley, JD, MBA, President and CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO)
- Dr. Josh Makower, Professor of Medicine and Bioengineering at Stanford University
- Dr. Aaron Kesselheim, Professor at the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital
- Dr. Rohan Ramachandran, Assistant Professor at the Yale School of Medicine
Patients Over Profit
Several senators and witnesses raised concerns about rising prescription drug prices, their dire consequences for patients, and the need for regulatory scrutiny to prioritize patients over profit. Senator Sanders shared that one in four Americans forgo prescribed medications due to cost, a reality echoed by Dr. Ramachandran, who described how drug pricing can create life-or-death decisions for her patients. The consolidation and closing of independent pharmacies and drug store chains was highlighted by Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) as another problem exacerbating the decreasing access to life-saving services and inflated treatment prices. Hawley noted that companies like CVS and Walgreens shuttering stores reduces patient access to prescription drugs and that these corporations prioritize maximizing profit at patients’ expense. Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) questioned whether the U.S. is acting with the “urgency” necessary to maintain its global lead in biotechnology and if the FDA has sufficient resources to do so. Several witnesses agreed that more should be done to understand how AI might expedite drug trials.
FABBS’ Takeaways
This hearing affirmed bipartisan support of sustained public investment in foundational research for new treatments. The committee highlighted that, as national security and medical innovations increasingly rely on biotechnology, ensuring affordable access to treatments and continuing to foster an innovation ecosystem for researchers remain priorities.
