MassBio CEO & President Kendalle Burlin O’Connell originally posted this update to LinkedIn.
It’s been a busy week on the Hill. The Senate wrapped an overnight vote-a-rama, HHS Secretary Kennedy completed a marathon stretch of congressional hearings, and lawmakers continued pressing hard on China’s threat to American biotech leadership. Here’s what caught our attention:
MFN Stays Out of Reconciliation: The Senate wrapped up a marathon vote-a-rama early Thursday morning after adopting a budget resolution focused narrowly on immigration enforcement funding. A Sanders amendment that would have reduced prescription drug prices by more than 50 percent by codifying Most Favored Nation drug pricing failed 49-49. Three Republicans (Senators Collins, Hawley, and Sullivan) crossed the aisle to support it, a signal of some bipartisan appetite for MFN even as it fell short. The outcome is a near-term reprieve from one of the most damaging policies for the industry, but MFN pressure isn’t going away. We’ll continue to advocate on behalf of Massachusetts biotechs who are navigating drug development timelines already complicated by FDA instability, IRA pricing dynamics, and new tariffs, sharing that MFN policies that further reshape the pricing environment will negatively impact U.S. biotech innovation.
Congress Digs into China’s IP Playbook: Yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Stealth Stealing: China’s Ongoing Theft of U.S. Innovation, led to significant discussion of concerns over how U.S. biotech IP ends up in China’s hands. The mechanism isn’t always theft in the traditional sense: Witnesses discussed how companies seeking Chinese market access are often required to partner with Chinese firms and transfer technology as a condition of entry, and once that knowledge flows to a Chinese partner, it can flow to the CCP. Senator Durbin’s opening remarks grounded the threat in a concrete example: INEOS, an Illinois-based company that developed a chemical with applications across medical, environmental, aerospace, and military sectors, had its trade secrets stolen by a Chinese firm that then became a direct competitor. Senator Padilla further noted that this dynamic motivated the Biosecure Act. The Senator also questioned whether companies report attempted IP theft because they don’t want to jeopardize their Chinese market access. A witness proposed one potential remedy: a framework allowing companies to cooperate confidentially with DOJ for a specified time period, after which DOJ brings the case forward and the cooperating company receives a share of recovered penalties.
RFK on the Hill: “They’re Eating Our Lunch”: HHS Secretary Kennedy wrapped up a marathon of House and Senate Committee hearings over the last two weeks, telling the Senate Finance Committee this week that China’s growing role in drug development and biotech is a threat to the United States. “They’re stealing our intellectual property, they’re stealing our researchers, they’re stealing our best scientists…It’s a crisis. They’re threatening our biosecurity and our public health and our dominance in the area.” Kennedy also told Congress that China is “eating our lunch” on new drug approvals and clinical trial starts. MassBio shares concerns over China’s continued rise in biotech research and clinical trials. From our perspective, protecting our leadership requires sustained federal investment in NIH, stable FDA operations, and policies that don’t inadvertently accelerate the flight of capital and talent abroad.
SEC Advisory Committee to Explore How to Encourage More IPOs: The SEC’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee will meet on April 28 to explore ways to encourage more companies to go public, with capital markets leaders on the agenda to share their read on the state of the IPO market. The timing matters for biotech. The IPO pipeline has diminished by roughly 40 percent in recent decades, though there are signs of life. Kailera Therapeutics went public last week, and seven biotech IPOs have raised at least $150M so far this year. Public markets remain an essential pathway for the capital-intensive work of bringing new treatments to patients, and MassBio will stay engaged with the SEC to make sure biotech’s voice is part of that conversation.