After passage of “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009” by the US House of Representatives in March, Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) president and CEO Jim Greenwood released a statement in support of the bill on behalf of biotech's main lobbying organization.

He stated that the bill provides “real solutions for our nation's health care challenges and real hope for patients living with debilitating diseases.” He added that it should lead to “new and improved treatments, cures, and cost-savings for patients while driving job growth in our industry and maintaining our nation's global leadership in biotechnology innovation.”

Thanks to bipartisan efforts, the bill enables the FDA to create a pathway for approval of biosimilar products, providing 12 years of market exclusivity to brand-name products. “According to the Congressional Budget Office, this provision will save patients tens of billions of dollars over the coming decade,” said Greenwood. And it includes incentives that should “attract the massive investment required to speed the discovery and development of the next generation of breakthrough therapies and potential cures for the world's most debilitating diseases.”

The bill should also provide financial relief to research-intensive, small biotechnology companies suffering from tight credit markets. According to the San Francisco Business Times, biotech and venture capitalists are two groups generally considered “winners” in the reform passage. As Ron Leuty reported in the Times on 22 March, “Health care reform expands the crowd of paying consumers that all drug makers — both biotech and traditional pill and tablet makers — can tap for good, old-fashioned revenue.”