Protecting America’s Innovation Advantage: Investment, Drug Discovery and the Future of U.S. Biopharma
- Jun 10
- 2 min read
On June 9, We Work For Health hosted a webinar convening leaders across business, venture capital, legal and innovation sectors to examine how drug pricing proposals – such as Most Favored Nation policies – could impact U.S. biomedical innovation, investment and future patient access to medicines.
Panelists emphasized that U.S. biomedical innovation depends on a fragile ecosystem – where sustained investment, long development timelines and high failure rates require policy stability and sufficient financial returns to keep capital flowing, especially for early-stage biotech and university research.
They warned that policies like Most Favored Nation (MFN) and broader price-setting approaches could increase uncertainty, deter investment and ultimately limit future innovation, job creation and patient access to new therapies.
Stan Abel, President and CEO, ProJenX, Inc., noted that small biotech firms advancing one or two high-risk candidates rely on stable conditions and sustained capital, as rising uncertainty can stall funding, cost jobs and threaten early-stage innovation originating in universities and incubators.
Andrew Lam, Managing Director and Head of Biotech Private Equity, Ally Bridge Group, highlighted that biotech investment is global and high-risk, with long timelines and shifting policy conditions, while stressing the importance of cross-state collaboration, modernizing views on job creation and recognizing the long-term cost savings of effective therapies.
Samantha Marshall, Counsel, Global Regulatory, Hogan Lovells, emphasized that drug development requires 10-15 years and significant investment, and warned that uncertainty from policies like MFN may undermine returns, affecting investment, employment, patient access and the broader innovation ecosystem.
Brad Watts, Senior Vice President, Global Innovation Policy Center, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, described biotech as a connected ecosystem where large-scale investment drives research, jobs and care, cautioning that foreign pricing models could disrupt capital flows, reduce innovation incentives, limit treatment choice and weaken U.S. competitiveness.
Watch the full discussion to hear directly from industry leaders on what’s at stake for innovation, investment and patient access.