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In a world of continual innovation in biopharmaceuticals, how do we ensure patients have access to the medicines that work to meet their individual needs? On Day 1 of BIO’s Patient and Health Advocacy Summit, a group of health care stakeholders joined Merck’s Dr. Julie Gerberding for a discussion about the importance of understanding policies …
Read Article: Patient and Health Advocacy Summit: Ensuring Patient Access and Affordability

A recently announced agreement between the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and the Israel Innovation Authority is a fitting testament to the theme for the upcoming BIO 2019 International Convention: It Starts with One.  In the intensely innovative biotechnology space, one meeting; one interaction; one study, one partnership, one discovery, or one presentation can change …
Read Article: It Starts with One-Presentation at BIO 2018 Leads to International Agreement

What do chickens have to do with Halloween? Well, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the likelihood of contracting a harmful bacterium, such as salmonella, increases when dressing a chicken in a Halloween costume. This makes sense because any contact with a live animal, especially a bird, presents the chance for transmission of …
Read Article: CDC Issues Risk Advisory on Dressing Chickens For Halloween, Biotech Chickens May Help

Last week, the seventh annual Patient and Health Advocacy Summit brought  hundreds of patient advocates, industry experts and policymakers together to engage on important issues facing the patient community. The summit concluded with a session on patient-focused drug development (PFDD) with distinguished panelists representing diverse perspectives: Paul Hastings, President and CEO of Nkarta Therapeutics; Laurie …
Read Article: Opportunities for Patient and Health Advocates

Agricultural biotechnology has the potential to address food-insecurity … of genetic-modification technology with reduced malnutrition and hunger in …

Each year BIO brings the patient stakeholder community together for the BIO Patient and Health Advocacy Summit to network; to learn; to engage; to partner; and to discover. Held this year-its seventh-at the Park Hyatt hotel in Washington, DC, the Summit concluded today after running a robust program focused squarely on patients and their immeasurable …
Read Article: BIO Patient & Health Advocacy Summit Concludes Today

Leading researchers representing more than 85 European plant and life sciences research centres and institutes have endorsed a position paper that urgently calls upon European policy makers to safeguard gene-editing technologies in plant science and agriculture. The scientists are deeply concerned about a recent European Court of Justice ruling concerning modern genome editing techniques that …
Read Article: European Scientists Unite to Safeguard Gene-Editing for Crops

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has reversed a long-standing policy allowing Medicare Advantage plans to impose “step therapy” requirements for physician-administered drugs – also known as Medicare Part B. More accurately described as “fail first,” this dangerous policy will force some patients to fail first on a medicine preferred by their insurance companies before …
Read Article: Patient Advocates Sounding the Alarm Over Fail First

Each year, roughly 12,500 newborns in the U.S., or one out of every 300 infants, are diagnosed with one of the 29 conditions that every newborn is screened for shortly after delivery.  Ranging from cystic fibrosis to Sickle cell anemia, the conditions often require immediate and intensive medical intervention.  This list of conditions includes spinal …
Read Article: Making SMA Newborn Screening a Reality: Collaborating with the Patient Advocacy Community