{"id":606872,"date":"2024-06-05T21:59:22","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T01:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/bio-2024-amgen-ceo-robert-a-bradway-on-the-impact-of-policy-on-the-innovation-ecosystem\/"},"modified":"2024-06-05T22:33:17","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T02:33:17","slug":"bio-2024-amgen-ceo-robert-a-bradway-on-the-impact-of-policy-on-the-innovation-ecosystem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/bio-2024-amgen-ceo-robert-a-bradway-on-the-impact-of-policy-on-the-innovation-ecosystem\/","title":{"rendered":"BIO 2024: Amgen CEO Robert A. Bradway on the impact of policy on the innovation ecosystem","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"
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Founded 44 years ago, Amgen was \u201ccreated at the dawn of the biotechnology revolution,\u201d said Robert A. Bradway, CEO of Amgen, \u201cwhen faculty at Stanford discovered that you could recombine DNA across organisms and, and, and make proteins that were otherwise unavailable as human therapeutics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission is simple. It\u2019s to serve patients,\u201d he said, speaking at a fireside chat with BIO President & CEO John F. Crowley on June 4 at the 2024 BIO International Convention in San Diego.<\/p>\n

Amgen\u2019s mission, he continued, \u201cis very clearly focused on innovative medicines.\u201d But even for a company around for so long, with so many successes, that mission is increasingly challenging due to changes in the policy and investment ecosystem.<\/p>\n

The impact of the Inflation Reduction Act on innovation<\/h2>\n

\u201cOurs is a challenging industry, right? This is an industry where now, on average, we\u2019re investing $2.5 billion to bring a molecule from discovery stage to the stage where it can be approved or not by regulators,\u201d said Bradway, and 10-15 years to get there. \u201cThe risks are high and the stakes are high. And that creates a great deal of complexity, as you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)\u2014specifically related to small molecule drugs<\/a>\u2014make that process even riskier by reducing the window for patent protection to nine years rather than the 13 years given to biologics. This could prove particularly challenging for oncology research.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would venture to guess that none of the legislators who advocated for that legislation recognize what the long-term effect will be on oncology research in this country,\u201d he noted\u2014which is unfortunate because \u201cwe\u2019re at an extraordinary moment in time where technology and biology are coming together.\u201d<\/p>\n

That nine-year window \u201cI think is going to prove to be unrealistic,\u201d he said. \u201cThe net result will be exactly what you\u2019d expect: when the returns of an industry go down, the investment in the industry follows. So, we will see a reallocation of capital, certainly away from those parts of our industry which the IRA most directly affects, like small molecule research.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unfortunate that there are some interesting, promising small molecules for cancer research that that may not see the light of day,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u2018Get back to the storytelling\u2019<\/h2>\n

The conversation turned to perceptions of the biotech industry, which improved somewhat during COVID-19, but now, \u201cwe\u2019ve fallen back,\u201d said Crowley. \u201cHow do we get that narrative back?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing more important than innovation to demonstrate to the world, the benefit of investing in biopharmaceutical innovation,\u201d said Bradway. \u201cWe need innovation and we need patients to have access to that innovation for us to win the narrative in the public domain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good news: there\u2019s plenty of innovation in the pipeline.<\/p>\n

The bad news: \u201cWe live in a system where lots of different entities are able to profit from or even profiteer from medicines,\u201d causing prices to look high, even when innovators (drug companies) didn\u2019t benefit.<\/p>\n

We have accumulated \u201cunintended consequences of decades and decades and decades of these evolutionary steps in the health care system,\u201d he continued, from middlemen to cost of recordkeeping.<\/p>\n

Bipartisan recognition of the value of biotech innovation long allowed innovation to flourish. \u201cWe enjoyed for many decades a bipartisan understanding of the value of the biopharmaceutical industry. Unfortunately, we don\u2019t enjoy that anymore,\u201d he said. (Case in point: the Inflation Reduction Act.) Now, we have to recognize that ecosystem\u2014and all the medicines it developed\u2014is \u201cfragile,\u201d and we may miss out on future innovation if we don\u2019t fix it.<\/p>\n

It comes down to telling the industry\u2019s story\u2014and ensuring policymakers understand the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission is very clear. We want to advance to serve patients. We want to do that with medicines that make a big difference for those who are suffering from diseases where the unmet medical need is high,\u201d he said. By combining that mission with a \u201cscience-based\u201d strategy focused on innovation, \u201cI think you have a recipe for success through a long period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGet back to the storytelling,\u201d echoed Crowley. \u201cHumanize who we are, what we do, why we do it, where we do it. And that\u2019s how we\u2019ll change the narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n