Protect Against Threats to Medical Innovation

By Kyle Keeney 

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the power of innovation in solving a serious healthcare crisis. Our healthcare professionals, working hand in hand with companies spearheading medical innovation, have helped to create and distribute a vaccine that is helping protect Americans.
 
While medical innovation has been top of mind for many of us over the last year, it has actually been saving lives and preventing the spread of dangerous diseases for centuries. During that time, vaccines have eradicated many deadly illnesses, not just in the U.S. but around the globe.
 
Companies are pouring resources into the development of new vaccines and medicines all the time. Researchers in the U.S. are currently working on 206 vaccines that range from treating and curing diseases to preventing them altogether.
 
It’s clear that vaccines have an extremely positive impact on public health—and even more so with the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccines. But as you can imagine, developing these vaccines to ensure their safety and efficacy takes a great deal of time, resources and money.
 
Because technology is constantly evolving, vaccines have given us the ability to effectively respond to new diseases and outbreaks—and scientists are working around-the-clock to bring new medical innovations to the market. However, the road to a medical breakthrough is always a long and often tedious one, and we must not make misguided policy decisions that will negatively impact innovation and access to lifesaving treatment options.
 
Drug pricing has been a major focus for Washington in recent months. And while helping patients save money on their medications is paramount, the price control policies currently being discussed are a major threat to future treatments, cures and medications.
 
Many Kentuckians today rely on innovative medicines to treat and manage their health conditions. We all want to ensure patients can affordably access these treatments, but price controls are not the way to do it. In practice, policies like this will only limit patient access to medications and prevent the development of new ones which will one day save lives.
 
At the same time, we must protect intellectual property behind these innovations and medical breakthroughs. Waiving intellectual property will only lead to a string of issues that may stifle innovation and jeopardize the significant investments that biomedical manufacturers are making to develop the safest and most effective vaccines, treatments and medications. Especially in the midst of a pandemic, the U.S. should be doing everything it can to incentivize medical innovation rather than setting up new barriers to research and development.
 
Intellectual property protections also serve as an important safety mechanism, making it much more difficult for counterfeit products to reach consumers. At a time when consumer trust is so important to public health, we must keep people safe by ensuring that only the most qualified and reputable manufacturers can produce vaccines and other treatments. This is never a place where we want to play fast and loose.
 
Without IP protections, not only would the market be inundated with vaccines that may not be up to safety standards, but researchers and the companies that fund them would face fewer incentives to invest such significant resources in these innovations. Furthermore, the market would be flooded with manufacturers that are looking to utilize limited materials. This would only make it harder for qualified manufacturers to access the resources they need and would put real lives at risk.
 
Given all the misinformation surrounding current vaccination efforts, it has never been more important for the U.S. to uphold safety practices that will help us build trust with consumers and stakeholders and assure them that the research behind vaccines is safe and effective.
 
The key to ending our current pandemic lies in taking advantage of the incredible medical innovations that have come to fruition over the last several months and continuing to increase vaccination rates worldwide. But while we focus on combating what’s in front of us today, we must be conscious of what’s ahead.
 
Our ability to effectively address the next outbreak or pandemic is contingent upon protecting innovation today. Doing so will ensure that future generations have the treatment and medicines they need to fight and prevent diseases as best they can—and that this cycle of innovation can continue for years to come.