(WASHINGTON, DC, February 2, 1994)...Biotechnology research into breakthrough drugs and therapies for cancers including breast, lung, ovarian, and prostate has been cutback due to a lack of investment according to an industry survey released today.

In the survey, conducted by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), forty-four (44%) of companies said their cancer research has already been delayed or curtailed. Forty-one per cent (41) said the dominant reason for the cuts was the decline in investment due to investor uncertainty over the Clinton Administration's proposals for de facto price controls on new breakthrough drugs. Sixty-two per cent (62%) predicted their cancer research faced further reductions should the Administration's proposals become law.

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"The key questions for Congress in the current health care debate should not be just the future economic health of the biotechnology industry but how much health' this industry will be allowed to provide the American people in the future," Carl B. Feldbaum, president of BIO stated.

"Right now the so-called health care debate is really about re-assigning the costs of coverage. To make it a real 'healthcare' plan there should be a commitment to provide 'more health' to Americans.

"Biotechnology medical research is the leading technology in medical innovation. When cures and therapies for various

cancers, AIDS, and other afflictions are found they will come from biotechnology. This is where more 'health' will come from-

not from the federal government's accounting department.

"But people's access to today's and tomorrow's biotech cures and therapies for diseases like cancer will be delayed or even denied when government controls impact the research. The government will in effect be limiting which medicines people and their doctor can choose.

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"It would be ironic to establish a reformed health care system which reduces potential for new cures.

Biotech therapies

can not only provide improved health but can be an important

component in reducing future medical costs.

Biotechnology can

ultimately be the most cost-effective and efficient way to deal with many diseases. But declines in medical research in biotech laboratories has already begun. And whether that decline is 40% or it it may mean longer waits for medical help for millions of Americans," Feldbaum warned.

An earlier BIO survey on member companies conducting research on cures and therapies for AIDS showed 47% had cutback on research, 63% predicted further cuts should price controls be established and 40% also said the Administration's price control proposals were the reason investors were shying away from biotech stocks.

The Administration's health care proposals include three mechanisms that would affect the prices of "breakthrough" drugs and "new medicines." One is a new "breakthrough" drug advisory council which would review introductory prices for cures and treatments for diseases.

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The secretary of HHS would also be allowed to require payment of "special rebates" for "new" drugs and medicines for cancer, AIDS and other diseases and to blacklist them from reimbursement if the prices were considered more unacceptable than others. The biotech industry considers these proposals to be "de facto" price controls.

"Price controls have a poor record in this country," Feldbaum pointed out. "It will be particularly onerous on an industry such as ours because with so much of our work in the research stage, we have few products and little revenue. The industry is very heavily dependent on investment markets. And from the investors' point of view, biotechnology is already a risky venture, making it even more risky with the specter of price controls."

There

In addition to cancers and AIDS, biotechnology medical research is also focusing on multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, Gaucher's disease, hairy cell leukemia and Alzheimer's. are over 1300 biotech companies in the U.S. The industry has created nearly 100,000 new jobs in the last decade.

BIO sent surveys to 63 companies involved in cancer

research.

Thirty-nine replied. Seventeen companies acknowledged

delays or cutbacks in their current cancer research.

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