Biotech Voices is a collection of exclusive opinion editorials from some of the leading voices in biopharma on the biggest industry questions today. Think you have a voice that should be heard? Reach out to Amber Tong.

We op­pose all at­tempts to in­tro­duce laws that re­duce the rights of US cit­i­zens to vote or that re­strict them from ex­er­cis­ing that right. The right to vote is fun­da­men­tal to democ­ra­cy. States that have en­act­ed, or are propos­ing to en­act, leg­is­la­tion to re­strict vot­ing are un­der­min­ing our democ­ra­cy and pos­ing a threat to our na­tion. As lead­ers of the life sci­ences in­dus­try, we stand for what we be­lieve is right for our coun­try, our en­ter­pris­es, our em­ploy­ees and those who ben­e­fit from our work. We join the first groups of busi­ness lead­ers who have chal­lenged these laws and will con­tin­ue to make our col­lec­tive voic­es heard on this mat­ter.

In some cas­es, in­sti­ga­tors of such laws may be sin­cere in be­liev­ing they are “en­sur­ing in­tegri­ty of the vot­ing process.” Such be­liefs are based on the con­tention that the 2020 elec­tion was “fraud­u­lent.” The US courts, the De­part­ment of Jus­tice, var­i­ous state gov­ern­ment of­fices and in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tions all have de­bunked this myth. In oth­er cas­es, pro­po­nents of such laws co­or­di­nate ef­forts and de­lib­er­ate­ly seek to dis­en­fran­chise and dis­crim­i­nate against par­tic­u­lar vot­ers.

Through­out its his­to­ry, Amer­i­ca has been called on re­peat­ed­ly to re­new and ad­vance its com­mit­ment to its found­ing ideals. Core among these is that all Amer­i­cans are en­ti­tled to equal op­por­tu­ni­ty and to be treat­ed equal­ly un­der the law. There is noth­ing more in­im­i­cal to these ideals than to un­der­mine our right to vote in free and fair elec­tions.

Amer­i­cans have en­dured a ter­ri­ble Civ­il War and have fought for gen­er­a­tions to over­come the evils of slav­ery, seg­re­ga­tion and Jim Crow. To­day we are fac­ing an­oth­er im­por­tant chap­ter in this fight. The cur­rent ef­forts in sev­er­al states to change vot­ing laws ef­fec­tive­ly mar­gin­al­ize and sup­press par­tic­u­lar class­es of vot­ers. Such out­comes fur­ther di­vide our so­ci­ety. They lead us back­ward, un­rav­el­ing many of the hard-won vic­to­ries — for which Amer­i­cans fought, and of­ten died — crit­i­cal to our na­tion’s democ­ra­cy and the free­dom of fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.

The biotech­nol­o­gy in­dus­try is dri­ving a rev­o­lu­tion to cure pa­tients, pro­tect our cli­mate, and nour­ish hu­man­i­ty. Our in­dus­try im­pacts the lives of bil­lions, em­ploys and in­vests in every state in our na­tion, and leads the de­vel­op­ment of vac­cines and med­i­cines that will de­feat the glob­al Covid pan­dem­ic and many oth­er dis­eases.

The US leads the world in biotech­nol­o­gy in large part be­cause the sci­ence un­der­pin­ning our in­dus­try thrives in a free so­ci­ety. Peo­ple of tal­ent are drawn to our in­dus­try re­gard­less of their per­son­al iden­ti­fiers or na­tion­al­i­ty. They feel that they will in­deed have equal op­por­tu­ni­ty to con­tribute and suc­ceed. They be­lieve they will be treat­ed equal­ly by the law and that ef­forts to con­tribute to the biotech­nol­o­gy rev­o­lu­tion are fos­tered by the so­ci­ety we live in. When the 2 free­doms foun­da­tion­al to our so­ci­ety are abridged, we lose this ad­van­tage, and will cede the field and our in­no­va­tions to com­pet­ing coun­tries.

As lead­ers in the biotech­nol­o­gy in­dus­try, and as in­di­vid­u­als who care deeply about democ­ra­cy, we call on all lead­ers in our in­dus­try to act as fol­lows:

1. When mak­ing new or ad­di­tion­al cap­i­tal in­vest­ments, ac­tive­ly con­sid­er al­ter­na­tives to in­vest­ing with­in states that have en­act­ed vot­er sup­pres­sion laws.
2. En­cour­age or­ga­niz­ers to con­sid­er al­ter­na­tive venues for con­fer­ences and ma­jor meet­ings and re­spect the right of those who choose not to at­tend meet­ings in any State en­act­ing vot­er sup­pres­sion laws.
3. Es­tab­lish poli­cies per­mit­ting half-day paid leave for all em­ploy­ees to vote.
4. En­cour­age em­ploy­ees to par­tic­i­pate in ef­forts to help reg­is­ter vot­ers and phys­i­cal­ly as­sist those who are un­able to eas­i­ly vote them­selves due to age, ill­ness, dis­abil­i­ty or oth­er im­ped­i­ment

We stand to­geth­er for the rights of all Amer­i­cans to vote freely and fair­ly. To do oth­er­wise would be to ac­cede to the hol­low­ing out of our democ­ra­cy which, as Lin­coln ob­served, has made Amer­i­ca the “last, best hope on earth.” The sig­na­tures be­low rep­re­sent the views of in­di­vid­u­als and not their com­pa­nies or oth­er or­ga­ni­za­tions.

Signed,

Je­re­my Levin, DPhil, MB BChir, Chair­man and CEO, Ovid Ther­a­peu­tics

Paul Hast­ings, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Nkar­ta Ther­a­peu­tics

John Maraganore, CEO, Al­ny­lam Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals

Ted W. Love, MD, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Glob­al Blood Ther­a­peu­tics

Rachel K. King, CEO, Gly­coMimet­ics

Ron Co­hen, MD, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Acor­da Ther­a­peu­tics

Sri­ni Akkara­ju, Founder & Man­ag­ing Part­ner, Sam­sara Bio­cap­i­tal

Jeff Al­bers, CEO, Blue­print Med­i­cines

Faraz Ali, CEO, Tenaya Ther­a­peu­tics

Theodore (Ted) T. Ash­burn, MD, PhD, Pres­i­dent and CEO, On­corus

Mar­tin Babler, For­mer CEO, Prin­cip­ia

Je­re­my Ben­der, CEO, Day One Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals

Nes­san Berming­ham, PhD Founder & CEO at Triplet Ther­a­peu­tics, Founder and Ex­ec Chair at Ko­r­ro Bio, Chair at Fs­tar Ther­a­peu­tics

Hans Bish­op, CEO, Grail

Kevin Bit­ter­man, Part­ner, At­las Ven­ture

Robert I. Blum, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Cy­to­ki­net­ics, Inc.

Bruce Booth, Part­ner, At­las Ven­ture

Daniel M. Brad­bury, Ex­ec­u­tive Chair­man, Equi­l­li­um

Pablo J. Cagnoni, MD, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Ru­bius Ther­a­peu­tics

Chip Clark, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Geno­cea Bio­sciences

Scott Clarke, CEO, Am­bagon Ther­a­peu­tics

Tony Coles, MD, Chair and CEO, Cerev­el Ther­a­peu­tics

Roger Crys­tal, MD, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Opi­ant Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals

Rahul Dhan­da, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Sher­lock Bio­sciences

Doug Do­er­fler, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Max­Cyte

Di­pal Doshi, CEO, En­tra­da Ther­a­peu­tics

Er­ic Dube, CEO, Tra­vere Ther­a­peu­tics

Dou­glas Fam­brough, CEO, Dicer­na Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals

Corey Fish­man, CEO, Iterum Ther­a­peu­tics

Jean-François Formela, Part­ner, At­las Ven­ture

Jacqua­lyn A. Fouse, CEO, Agios Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals

Cedric Fran­cois, CEO, Apel­lis Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals

Sean George, CEO, In­vi­tae

Deb Ger­aghty, PhD, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Anokion

Michael Glad­stone, Part­ner, At­las Ven­ture

San­dra Glucks­mann, PhD, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Cedil­la Ther­a­peu­tics

Jeff Goater, Chair­man of the Board, Sur­face On­col­o­gy

David Grayzel, MD, Part­ner, At­las Ven­ture

Bar­ry Greene, CEO, Sage Ther­a­peu­tics

Adam Gri­d­ley, CEO, Al­lay Ther­a­peu­tics

David Hal­lal, Chair­man and CEO, El­e­vate­Bio

Patrick Hines, MD/PhD, CEO, Func­tion­al Flu­idics

Steven Holtz­man, Chair, Board of Di­rec­tors, Camp4

Alex Kar­nal, Co-Founder and CIO, Braid­well

Per­ry Karsen, for­mer CEO, Cel­gene Cel­lu­lar Ther­a­peu­tics

Scott Koenig, MD, PhD, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Macro­Gen­ics

Pe­ter Kolchin­sky, Man­ag­ing Part­ner, RA Cap­i­tal

Samarth Kulka­rni, CEO, CRISPR Ther­a­peu­tics

Don­na LaVoie, CEO, LaVoieHealth­Science

Pablo Legor­re­ta, Founder and CEO, Roy­al­ty Phar­ma

Mark Levin, Part­ner, TRV

Will Lewis, Chair and CEO, In­smed

Gail Maderis, Pres­i­dent and CEO, An­ti­va Bio­sciences

Tahir Mah­mood, CEO and Founder, Ap­plied Mol­e­c­u­lar Trans­port

Jef­frey D. Mar­raz­zo, CEO, Spark Ther­a­peu­tics

Alex Mar­tin, CEO, Pal­la­dio Bio­sciences

Ken Mills, Pres­i­dent and CEO, RE­GENXBIO

Ken­neth I. Moch, Se­nior Ad­vi­sor to the Chair­man, Cen­ter for Glob­al Health In­no­va­tion and the Glob­al Health Cri­sis Co­or­di­na­tion

Michael M. Mor­ris­sey, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Ex­elix­is

Amit Mun­shi, CEO, Are­na Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals

William J. Newell, CEO, Sutro Bio­phar­ma

John Or­win, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Atre­ca

Ju­lia Owens, PhD, Ex­ec­u­tive Chair­man, Mil­len­do Ther­a­peu­tics

Ste­lios Pa­padopou­los, PhD, Chair­man of the Board at Bio­gen, Ex­elix­is, Reg­u­lus Ther­a­peu­tics

An­tho­ny Quinn, MB, ChB, PhD, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Ae­glea Bio­Ther­a­peu­tics

Bill Rastet­ter, Chair­man at Neu­ro­crine Bio­sciences, Fate Ther­a­peu­tics, Daré Bio­science; San Diego Squared

Ronald C. Re­naud, Jr., CEO, Trans­late Bio

Ja­son P. Rhodes, Part­ner, At­las Ven­ture

Mar­tine A. Roth­blatt, PhD, Chair­per­son and CEO, Unit­ed Ther­a­peu­tics Cor­po­ra­tion

George Scan­gos, PhD, CEO, Vir Biotech­nol­o­gy

John A. Scar­lett, MD, Chair­man and CEO, Geron Cor­po­ra­tion

Ran­dall C. Schatz­man, PhD, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Bolt Ther­a­peu­tics

Jim Sci­bet­ta, CEO, Mav­er­ick

Paul J. Sekhri, Pres­i­dent and CEO, eGe­n­e­sis

RA Ses­sion II, Pres­i­dent, CEO, Founder, Taysha Gene Ther­a­pies

Lau­ra Shawver, CEO, Sil­ver­back Ther­a­peu­tics

Clay B. Sie­gall, PhD, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Seagen

Nan­cy Si­mon­ian, MD, CEO, Sy­ros Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals

Eri­ka R. Smith, CEO, ReNetX Bio

Jean-Pierre Som­ma­dos­si, PhD, Chair­man and CEO, Atea Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals

Robert Tep­per, Part­ner, Third Rock Ven­tures

Arthur Tzian­a­bos, PhD, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Ho­mol­o­gy Med­i­cines

Michel Vounatsos, CEO, Bio­gen

Rick E. Win­ning­ham, Chair­man and CEO, Ther­a­vance Bio­phar­ma US

Michael Yang, Pres­i­dent and CEO, Vi­a­Cyte

Brad­ford A. Za­kes, Pres­i­dent, CEO and Chair­man Cerev­ast Med­ical

Want to sign your name to this let­ter? Reach out to man­ag­ing ed­i­tor Kyle Blanken­ship at kyle@end­pointsnews.com.

President Joe Biden made clear in his “finish the job” State of the Union address last night that one of those jobs to be finished is insulin prices.

Biden’s push again to tackle insulin prices, after Republicans rebuffed the idea last summer and just after Biden won Medicare drug price negotiations/caps via the Inflation Reduction Act, shows how heavily he’s leaning into this work.

We now know where Roche’s ex-pharma chief Bill Anderson is going.

German pharma giant Bayer announced Wednesday that Anderson will be taking on the role as CEO, less than six weeks after Anderson stepped down from his perch at Roche as head of the group’s pharmaceutical division.

Roche announced back in December that Anderson would depart on Dec. 31 to “pursue opportunities outside of Roche.” His replacement, Genentech vet and Roche’s current head of global product strategy, Teresa Graham, will start her role in March.

As talk of AI this-and-that gobbles up headline after headline, one Big Pharma is losing its AI leader as she transitions to another drug giant: Iya Khalil will trade in her hat as Novartis’ go-to expert and leader in the space for Merck as VP and head of data, AI and genome sciences next week.

After nearly three years leading the artificial intelligence team at Novartis — as Big Pharma and biotechs alike latch onto the ripening AI-for-drug-discovery mode of operation — Khalil will switch employers to head up a similar post at Merck, where she’ll work out of Cambridge, MA beginning Feb. 13, the company tells Endpoints News.

Six weeks into his new role at the helm of Teva Pharmaceutical, Richard Francis said it’s time to “get back to growth,” starting with a good look at the company’s priorities.

The chief executive has kicked off a strategic review, he announced during Teva’s quarterly call, which will continue over the next several months and produce results sometime in the middle of 2023. That means some pipeline cuts may be in store, he told Endpoints News, while declining to offer much more detail.