This week Boston Globe ran a full page ad in the Boston Globe asking Governor Patrick to make the easy decision and send the Healthcare Containment Bill back to the Legislature. Bellow is the text of the ad they ran. It is important that we let the Governor know the grave consequences of such a draconian bill on the healthcare and medical research industry of Massachusetts.
Also in an op-ed piece in the Globe, the heads of the Biotech and Medical Device councils argue the economic impact to the state will be massive: New rules hamper life sciences effort
Every day, Governors across the country face difficult decisions. Today, when Governor Patrick arrives at work, he too will be confronted with a difficult decision. On the Governor’s desk sits legislation that could well determine the future of the life sciences industry in Massachusetts.
Over the past year the Governor, the Senate President, and the Speaker of the House have all spoken frequently and forcefully about the enormous importance of the life sciences industry to Massachusetts.
That message turned into an extraordinary collaboration between those three leaders that resulted in the recent passage of the landmark Life Sciences Bill. Indeed that bill, designed to secure Massachusetts’
standing as the epicenter of the life sciences industry, caught the attention of industry leaders across the nation and around the world. While some of the signatories listed below did not advocate for the bill,
it is with a unanimous voice that we join together now.
In fact, Governors everywhere, who have always been extremely envious of the Massachusetts’ Lif e Sciences sector, scrambled to keep pace. The reasons are found in the facts: 55,000 industry jobs in 2005 –
a payroll of over $5 billion across the biopharmaceutical industry – and 15,000 jobs expected by 2014, mostly in research and development. Not to mention the fact that annual aggregate revenues of this industry
in 2002 were $11.2 billion. While these economic impacts are extraordinary, the more basic human reason may simply be pride – this is an industry that develops products that save thousands of lives every
day, and it is being done in Massachusetts.
So, one might ask, what is the difficult decision facing Governor Patrick? Sitting on his desk is legislation
that may well undermine it all. That legislation, promoted by a few special interest groups, begins with a simple premise – demonize an industry and the thousands of professionals that comprise it, including
doctors, for being successful. They make arguments that are designed to appeal to our most basic emotions when they question the relationship between our doctors and industry. They say things that read well in
the press, but lack credibility. They want you to believe that your own doctor is more concerned about the industry, than he is or she is about you as a patient. Is our industry successful, absolutely! Is that
success used to create even better and more effective life saving medications, absolutely! Do we condone, or even tolerate, what they say is a corrupt relationship between our industry and your doctor,
absolutely not!
The Legislation awaiting the Governor’s decision not only demonizes the same industry that we have just spent one billion dollars trying to promote, it also will have a direct and immediate devastating impact on the lives of thousands of people across the Commonwealth. These are your family members, friends, neighbors and countless others who, desperate for a cure for some of today’s most catastrophic medical diagnoses, are enrolled in a clinical trial. These clinical trials, which frequently are a person’s last hope for survival, are the way that new, cutting-edge and potentially life saving treatments are developed.
The legislation that awaits Governor Patrick’s decision will significantly curtail, if not end altogether, the availability of these last hope clinical trials in Massachusetts. The reason – the legislation requires the
companies that develop these new treatment options to disclose, to their competitors, the products and areas of research in which they are involved. The chilling effect that this will have on the life sciences
industry in Massachusetts could not be more obvious. The impact on the thousands of Massachusetts patients desperate for medical hope will be profound. Clinical trials being done today in Massachusetts
will most certainly only be available elsewhere tomorrow. The hope for so many patients, suffering so much, will be diminished.
Governor, as it turns out, today’s decision is easy.
Biotechnology Industry Organization
Massachusetts Biotechnology Council
Associated Industries of Massachusetts
Massachusetts High Technology Council
Cambridge Chamber of Commerce
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America