Calling it “a bill in search of a problem,” Paul Pescatello, president of CURE, spoke against Raised Bill No. 270 in testimony March 1 before the Committee on Public Health of the Connecticut General Assembly.
The bill is “An Act Concerning the Establishment of a
Regional Policy on the Prohibition of Certain Gifts from
Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Manufacturing Companies to
Health Care Providers.”
The bill purports to address the “problem” of gifts by biopharma companies to doctors and other health care providers – but that issue has already been successfully addressed and regulated by various other bodies, Pescatello said.
He mentioned FDA, Medicaid, and AMA guidelines already on the books, as well as a strict code of
conduct required of its members by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
Duplicative, unnecessary legislation like raised bill 270 will unnecessarily burden
Connecticut biotechs. The legislation would force them to
divert one or more of their (few) employees from R&D to
compliance, in order to make sure their firm isn’t snagged by some subtle differences among the various regulatory schemes, Pescatello told the Committee.
That might be worth it, if there was a significant harm needing regulation, but “if there really isn’t such a harm, if all it’s really about is
posturing, faux action against a conjured-up bogyman, the effect of bills like raised bill 270 is to slow medical R&D and, ultimately, to slow the introduction of treatments and cures patients are clamoring for,” Pescatello said.
“It is naïve to think this approach doesn’t register negatively with companies as they make choices about where to invest and grow,” Pescatello
said.
Click here for the complete
testimony.
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