Health Care Reform and Possible Effects on Innovative Therapies

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 9:08 a.m. in Room 2318, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Tim Valentine [chairman of the subcommittee] presiding.

Mr. VALENTINE. Ladies and gentlemen, we will get started. I try to be a little different and start on time. That would be different for this institution. But I agreed to pinch hit for Congressman Lancaster from our State to speak to a group of young interns this morning at 8:30, so that's-otherwise I would have been here.

There are competing hearings today, and I believe we will be joined by other Members on both sides of where I sit as we proceed with what we believe to be a very, very important exercise.

I want to welcome you to this third hearing in our series of hearings to examine health care reform and the role of medical technologies. Today we address cancer as a case study as to how reform may affect innovative therapies in cancer treatment.

It is particularly fitting that we look into this serious topic not only because of its devastating impact on so many of our constituents but also because of the fact that the science committee and this subcommittee sustained the loss of a beloved and very valuable member of the subcommittee last year, our dear friend Paul Henry of the Third District of Michigan.

Just a few years ago the word "cancer" was, in effect, a death sentence. Fortunately, however, more and more people are recovering from cancer because of aggressive treatments using combinations of radiation chemicals, hormones, surgery, and/or immunethe therapy of immunization. These treatments are costly to develop and costly to utilize, and we have not won the war of course. Cancer will kill approximately a half million people in the United States this year alone. Nearly one out of every three Americans now living will eventually contract one or more forms of this dread disease.

I want to here applaud President Clinton and his efforts toward health care reform. We must improve our health care system. We also must expand coverage and control costs. Still-that is the miracle. Still, we must be careful not to reform away what is so posi

(1)

tive about our health care, the first-class treatment and technolo and medical care that is without equal on the planet.

Therefore, the question becomes: How do we achieve the goals universal lifetime coverage and reduction of health care costs wit out negatively affecting innovation? Are there provisions in t Health Security Act and in the competing proposals that would i advertently harm innovation? That is why we held our hearing la June on health care reform and the role of medical technology a last November on biotechnology research and development. It why we will invite the administration, or representatives of the a ministration, to appear before this subcommittee next month ar why we will spend today talking about rehabilitative medical tec nologies.

I am now cochair of the Medical Technology Caucus, which Ji Ramstad of Minnesota and I founded last November. It is my hop that many of my colleagues will join this organization.

Witnesses today include Carl Feldbaum, who is president of th Biotechnology Industry Organization, Derrel De Passe, vice pres dent, Worldwide Government Relations, for Varian; Dr. Thoma Brown, associate professor of the Department of Medicine, Hema tology and Oncology, at Duke University Medical Center and member of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Clinic-and if he is a lucky as I think he is, he is my constituent; Durham County is d vided, as we know—Mrs. Melanie Wagner-Johnson of Bethlehem Pennsylvania; Mrs. Wagner-Johnson is a patient/cancer survivor who was treated at Duke Medical Center and is a constituent o our colleague, Paul McHale. The final witness is Dr. John Curd who is clinical director of Genentech. We look forward to their tes timony.

And this is the place where I would recognize the distinguished ranking member of the subcommittee. He is Mr. Lewis from Flor ida, who is, as I, serving his last term in Congress. When he comes in, we will be happy to recognize him. In his absence, a very distin guished member of the committee from the State of Maryland, Rep resentative Connie Morella-if you have an opening statement.

Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Chairman, I just want to say that I am really looking forward to this hearing. It is true, we have conflicting meetings going on. But I am honored to represent an area where a lot of research is being done the National Institutes of Health National Naval Medical Center, the Walter Reed-I have FDA many, many biotechnology companies, small and large, and, as somebody who also, as almost everybody else, has personally expe rienced the loss of a loved one, my sister, from whom we got six children many years ago, we all want to see what medical tech nologies can do to advance the cure and medications to preventto get to the heart of cancer, as this particular case study is.

So we need to know how health care reform is going to affect the kind of research you are all doing and what our role is going to be as a Governmental entity and the financial kind of commitment that we should be making for this to advance.

So thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, witnesses. I look forward to hearing from you.

Mr. VALENTINE. The chair is happy to recognize at this time a listinguished member of the subcommittee from the State of New Jersey, Congressman Klein.

Mr. KLEIN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I am very ›leased to participate in this hearing and very proud of the fact hat the Eighth Congressional District of New Jersey is one of the centers of the biotechnology industry, and while I am not lucky enough, as the chairman, to have a constituent who is on the panel, we do have one of the leading biotechnology companies in he country, Hoffman-LaRoche, as headquartered in the Eighth Congressional District, and we also anticipate that a major center for research in the biotechnology area will soon be located in our listrict.

I am very, very impressed with what the biotechnology industry can do in terms of not only providing health care to people but also enhancing the quality of life for cancer victims.

I recently had the occasion to visit a research institution that is active in the biotechnology industry, and it was working on means of locating cancer growths that were within one eighth of an inch of the spot in the body where the particular growth could be located, and the benefits of that, for example, not only enabled the medical people to treat it more effectively but enabled the medical people in many cases to avoid intrusive surgical, medical care and to use therapies that were much more-much less onerous in terms of the effect on quality of life.

So I see great opportunities for health care in biotechnology. At the same time, I also see concerns, and the concern that I see is that as we get more proficient technically, it becomes more expensive, and I think it is absolutely essential that the biotechnology industry also focus on ways in which the biotechnology can be utilized effectively without being wasted and without being unnecessarily costly.

So I pose that challenge to you, to the panelists, and to the industry, and I again welcome all of the witnesses and salute the industry for the wonderful work that it has done.

Mr. VALENTINE. Thank you.

The distinguished gentleman from New Hampshire, Mr. Swett. Mr. SWETT. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman.

I first want to express my appreciation for your participating in this hearing today. The last I heard, medicine is a science, and it is good to see that we are discussing medicine on the Science, Space and Technology Committee on the Technology, Environment, and Aviation Subcommittee; I appreciate that inclusion.

Cancer is certainly one of the conditions in medicine that I feel is an important one to study. I have had personal experience with that. My dad is currently undergoing therapy for lymphoma, and that has greatly increased my awareness of the study of and the developments that have been made in treating cancer of any form in human beings. I think it is a very important issue that we need to explore, so I am very interested in hearing your testimony.

Furthermore, biotechnology is a very important issue not only in New Jersey, but if you keep heading up in the Northeast, there is a tremendous amount of biotechnology development in the North

« Previous Continue »

Books

Health Care Reform and Possible Effects on Innovative Therapies ..., Volume 4