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The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MBC) is launching a new program to create a “scorecard” that will rate federal policy in terms of how it affects the life sciences industry.
The Cambridge-based industry advocacy group says it will be the first federal legislative scorecard it’s proposed. The scorecard is meant to assist in monitoring issues important to the biotech industry and communicate with industry leaders and get them to participate in policy-making processes.
The Massachusetts biotechnology industry is “fragile,” and policy decisions are critical to its ability to create jobs and discover cures for patients, stated MBC president and CEO Robert Coughlin. He claimed the members of the MBC have asked for an easy way to follow and advise on federal policy initiatives. The scorecard will help enable that. The MBC intends to debut the scorecard next week at BIO Fly In, a Washington, D.C.-based biotech event for national executives to advocate for industry policies and regulations.
The finished scorecard will be released at the end of the 111th Congressional session.
The MBC has been very critical of local regulations enabled by the passage of a health care reform bill Massachusetts legislature last August. The rules set strict limits on cash gifts and other interactions between doctors and patients.
Coughlin claimed it was unfortunate that this statute makes Massachusetts one of the unfriendliest states toward the biotech and pharmaceutical industries in the country. He also said it’s certainly had a “chilling effect” on the MBC’s recruitment efforts with biopharmaceutical companies to hold clinical trials in Massachusetts and to relocate to the state.
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