New Brunswick, Nov. 15, 2019 — HINJ President and Chief Executive Officer Dean J. Paranicas today issued the following statement about the new health care proposal from Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.).
“Intellectual property is the very lifeblood of American innovation – whether it is created in New Jersey, Silicon Valley, MIT or the Pentagon, or whether it’s in biopharmaceuticals, software, nanotechnology or defense – which is precisely why preserving it has been a core American value since our country’s founding.
“Sen. Booker’s proposal calls for the federal government to effectively confiscate a life sciences company’s patented intellectual property through compulsory licensing if price negotiations fail – after the company has risked billions of dollars and worked for a decade or more to bring a new treatment or cure to patients. This extreme tactic is fundamentally at odds with one of our nation’s foundational principles – encouraging and protecting innovation – that is embodied in our Constitution, and it would destroy hope for those future treatments and cures.
“While we share and commend Sen. Booker for his goal of lowering health care costs, this proposal could only produce disastrous unintended — but eminently foreseeable — consequences. Not only would future medical innovation and America’s global leadership in life sciences research be threatened, we also would face the danger of decimating New Jersey’s workforce and economy if the heart of the life sciences’ vitality is in imminent peril.
“New Jersey’s life sciences community has long supported policies to ensure that patients can afford the best, most cutting-edge treatments that science and technology can provide. We will continue to vigorously oppose legislation that will not achieve that goal while simultaneously dismantling a vital industry that is a pillar of our economy. There are better ways.”