IRA and political rhetoric harming pharma reputation and innovation, Amicus

With biopharma reputation at an all-time low, John Crowley told a packed BWB plenary how Amicus Therapeutics is “getting back the magic of biotechnology” and “recapturing the narrative.”

Biotech entrepreneur and Amicus executive chairman John Crowley took to the stage at the Biotech Week Boston (BWB) exhibit hall yesterday to share his vision of leading with “passion and compassion” to help revitalize the beleaguered biopharma industry.

Citing a Harris Poll survey from 2019, public perception of Big Pharma had hit rock bottom. “We used to be at the top in the ’80s and ’90s. Roy Vagelos, the long-time visionary CEO of Merck was for many years the most respected business leader in America,” he said.

John Crowley gave the plenary talk at BWB in Boston yesterday

“And then you look at public perception today. Some of it brought on by political rhetoric, part of it brought on by our actions: price increases and people playing games with IP that prevent new technologies getting to patients. That needs to stop.”

He added despite the industry stepping up through the pandemic – “we saved the world during COVID” – political rhetoric continues to take its toll, while the controversial Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) adds a further challenge.

The IRA passed into law last year with the intention to reduce inflationary pressures and avoid recession by boosting clean energy, strengthening supply chains, and increasing tax revenues. However, the Act has ruffled industry’s feathers through its efforts to reduce healthcare costs by extending premium subsidies in the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) marketplaces and lowering prescription drug prices.

“It’s going to harm innovation,” said Crowley, mirroring the view of others, including Biogen, Merck & Co., and the trade group BIO. “The IRA is one of the worst pieces of legislation to pass congress, and that’s saying something! It will lead to fewer treatments and fewer cures; it will impose government mandated prices on drugs; it will cause a dislocation of investment from small molecules up to the large molecules; it’s not what we need to accelerate research and to bring medicines to patients.”

Getting back the magic

To overcome the malaise, Crowley called on industry itself to take action to drive patient access, tipping his hat to The New Patient Commitment, a pledge made in early 2020 and signed by 200 biotech CEOs.

“We said our industry is different than any other. Like physicians and nurses take an oath and an obligation to heal, we provide the medicines for them to heal patients, and with that comes a moral obligation to ensure access to our medicines. Each company has to take that on and translate that into their business practices.”

For rare disease-focused Amicus, Crowley has implemented several commitments aimed at forging personal and direct relationships with patients.

The ‘Price Promise’ aims at avoiding drug price hikes, an action undertaken by some drugmakers that restricts access and continues to place the industry in an unfavorable light. Amicus has committed to never raising the cost of its products above the rate of inflation. Even when inflation hit 9% last year, the company increased its prices by less than half. This keeps Amicus “responsible,” said Crowley, ensuring early access and allaying the future fears of a patient that their critical medicines will become too costly.

Secondly, the ‘Pledge to a Cure’ commitment takes a significant percentage of revenue from a product and reinvests it into R&D for the same disease area until that disease is fully cured.

“Other companies have taken similar steps and we’re starting to see this more and more with our emerging biotechnology companies,” he concluded. “When we talk about getting back the magic of biotechnology, recapturing the narrative of who we are and what we do, these are the important actions that we can take to make sure we are not only making great medicines but getting them to as many people.”