California Healthcare Institute Statement on AB 463
SAN DIEGO (PRWEB) April 21, 2015 -- The California Healthcare Institute (CHI), a non-profit representing more than 275 leading life sciences organizations, released the following statement by CHI President and CEO Sara Radcliffe regarding California State Assembly Bill (AB) 463:
“As innovators in the life sciences sector dedicated to the development of treatments and cures for patients with serious and life-threatening diseases, we have deep concerns regarding AB 463, the so-called Pharmaceutical Cost Transparency Act of 2015. This legislation arbitrarily targets an industry providing historically price-stable medicines and treatments to patients in need while also delivering real value to our healthcare system.
“The stated goal of AB 463 is to ‘make pharmaceutical pricing as transparent as the pricing in other sectors of the healthcare industry,’ yet no other industry is being targeted by such expensive, burdensome, and contextually meaningless reporting requirements. The message of AB 463 is that new medicines are part of the problem. We couldn’t disagree more – new medicines are a central part of the solution to improved healthcare for all, transforming patient care, averting premature death, and returning a net economic benefit to society.
“In targeting pharmaceuticals, AB 463 questions the cost, complexity, and risk of the development of innovative medicines. On average, only one in every 10,000 new compounds becomes a new drug on the market. Furthermore, roughly 95 percent of candidates entering clinical trials eventually fail. In the face of these challenges, life sciences innovators continue to develop drugs that are making enormous strides in treating major diseases affecting Americans, including cancers, infectious diseases, heart disease, and neurological conditions.
“AB 463 would stifle innovation because it requires an extensive, extremely burdensome and subjective list of reporting provisions that would provide absolutely no ‘transparency’ to the public or policymakers because it isolates only certain types of information and it provides no context for that information.
“We respectfully oppose AB 463 in its current form, and are willing to work with the bill’s sponsors to make the legislation more supportive of advancing life science research, investment and innovation."
Click here to view the legislation.
About CHI-California Healthcare Institute
CHI represents more than 275 leading biotechnology, medical device, diagnostics and pharmaceutical companies, and public and private academic biomedical research organizations. CHI’s mission is to advance biomedical research, investment and innovation through effective advocacy of policies to improve public health and ensure continued vitality of the life sciences sector. CHI’s website is http://www.chi.org. Follow us on Twitter @calhealthcare, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Contact:
Will Zasadny
Manager – Communications, California Healthcare Institute
Zasadny(at)chi(dot)org
Phone: (619) 961-8848
Will Zasadny, Manager of Communications, CHI-California Healthcare Institute, http://www.chi.org, +1 619-961-8848, [email protected]
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