Council for American Medical Innovation

December 1, 2009 | Liberty Science Center | Jersey City, New Jersey

On Tuesday, December 1, 2009, the Council for American Medical Innovation, HealthCare Institute of New Jersey (HINJ), and We Work for Health New Jersey co-hosted the “Best and Brightest Forum on Medical Innovation” at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, NJ.  Over 50 stakeholders in medical innovation attended the event, including representatives from industry, academia, research, education, patient groups, disease groups, venture capital and the media. 

The event featured remarks by HINJ President Bob Franks, Council Chairman Dick Gephardt, Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ), and closing comments by William Tansey, III, M.D., Chair of the Board of the Liberty Science Center. The panel featured:

• Kathy Ahearn O’Brien, Executive Director, Hyacinth AIDS
• Linda Brown, Director of Business Development, PAREXEL International
• John Crowley, President & Chief Executive Officer, Amicus Therapeutics, Inc.
• David Knowlton, President and Chief Executive Officer, New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, Inc.
• Donald Sebastian, Ph.D., Senior Vice President for Research and Development & Interim Provost, New Jersey Institute of Technology (invited)
• Wise Young, M.D., Ph.D., Professor II of Cell Biology & Neuroscience, Rutgers University, and Director of the W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience/The Spinal Cord Injury Project, Nelson Labs

Broadcast and print media outlets covering the event interviewed Dick Gephardt, Bob Franks, Debra Lappin, John Crowley, and several other panelists.  Media attendees included:

• Mountain Broadcasting Television, which does a nightly broadcast
• New Jersey Network, a statewide broadcast network
• New Jersey Business Journal, which ran a story titled “State a beacon for medical innovation, experts say,” on December 1 by Shankar P.
• The Star-Ledger

The co-sponsors also issued a press release on December 1.

Highlights from the Discussion

Bob Franks, Former Congressman and President of HINJ, opened the event by thanking the co-sponsors and providing an overview of the impact and importance of medical innovation in New Jersey.  He emphasized that there is no better way to stimulate the economy than through medical innovation, which simultaneously provides hope for patients facing serious illnesses.

Dick Gephardt introduced the President of the Council for American Medical Innovation, Debra Lappin, who was in the audience, and provided an overview of the Council and the Best & Brightest Forums held around the country during the past year.  While the U.S. has always been a leader in medical innovation, he said we need an agenda for continued advancements going forward, and the Council has developed an agenda focused on research, investment, and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. 

Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) thanked the sponsors and said medical innovation is one of New Jersey’s greatest prides.  He agreed that government policy plays an important role in promoting innovation, and highlighted four recent advances in policy to help foster medical innovation:

• $10.4 billion in stimulus funding for NIH, which has already brought significant grants to New Jersey universities, which are using the funds to conduct research and build infrastructure, creating ancillary jobs related to that work.
• Promoting stem cell research through stimulus funding and by removing barriers to research through executive order.  Already in the past months, NIH has made tremendous strides in STEM cells breakthroughs.
• Encouraging personalized medicine for individual health care needs using genetic information, thanks to the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. 
• Engaging in public private partnerships in pursuit of new techniques for vaccine development, so that the U.S. can be better prepared for and prevent future pandemics. 

Congressman Pallone concluded saying that he looks forward to continued opportunities for public-private partnerships to make advancements in medical innovation.

Wise Young, M.D., Ph.D., noted that NIH funding for stem cell research is inadequate and that young researchers are not being adequately supported.  He expressed concern that we are a nation that has become anti-science and scientifically illiterate, and said that we need to give Americans a reason to put their faith back into science and medicine.

Donald Sebastian, Ph.D., said our challenge in medical innovation is yet another chapter in the sagging competitiveness in the U.S. over the last 20 years.  We’re expecting the universities to become the next companies – but that’s not meant to be their role.  And, as a parent, he noted that K-12 math and science education is not connecting students to real world applications. 

Linda Brown suggested that while there is no question that innovation is at risk, it is at the same time thriving.  She listed several pieces of evidence pointing to a strong medical innovation engine, such as biomarkers, and said the missing link is in applying new discoveries.  In order to put new discoveries into practice, she said we need to make sure that our environment is business friendly and that we are prepared for business growth.

Kathy Ahearn O’Brien, who joined the panel on World AIDS Day, thanked the sponsors for including the disease community in the discussion, because she believes collaboration between researchers, industry and patients should be at the heart of medical innovation.  She said the HIV/AIDS community has benefitted tremendously from medical innovation already, and said hopes are high for a future vaccine, especially following a breakthrough in Thailand using a combination vaccine.  She emphasized that the HIV/AIDS community has driven the compassionate care approach, government advocacy, and collaborative research.  She suggested that the same model could be used in developing treatments for other diseases, and said we need to break down silos and collaborate more.

David Knowlton said that as a health care consumer advocate he thinks a lot about the beneficiaries of medical innovation.  He shared a story about a colleague who might still be alive today if only he had lived to see the tremendous medical advances in AIDS treatment.  He also shared that, thanks to medical innovation, he has personally made a terrific recovery following a serious stroke.  He emphasized the significance of shortening the trajectory of solutions to diseases.  While we’ve made tremendous progress in the past century, he expressed concern that the trajectory is now expanding, and the timeframe for developing new treatments is slowing.  Mr. Knowlton noted that cost-cutting policies like price controls could slow innovation.  He said that the road blocks need to be eliminated.

John Crowley, inspiration for the upcoming Hollywood film “Extraordinary Measures,” focused on three major questions: (1) how do we increase access to quality health care; (2) how do we better manage costs (because good, quality health care will never be cheap); and (3) how do we advance medical innovation.  Mr. Crowley has observed that the most inspirational innovators have had three characteristics: risk taking, determination, and vision – he cited Dr. Jonas Salk’s development of the polio vaccine as an example.  He talked about the Orphan Drug Act and the impact it has had in advancing treatments for rare diseases, including his children’s Pompe disease.  He closed with the words of Christopher Reeve: “biotechnology is a great big word – and for people like me, it’s a great big word that means ‘hope.’”

Following panelists’ remarks, Mr. Gephardt facilitated a question & answer session, which centered on the following topics:

• Collaboration in the medical innovation process
• Translational research
• The need for FDA modernization
• Foreign competition – and lack of competitive drive in the U.S.
• Risk of focusing too much on cost-cutting in health care
• Problems in the legal system that create high liability for drug makers, and how the patient community can get involved to mitigate that risk.
• The need for improvements in STEM education at every level
• Incentives for medical innovation in the face of generic competition and reimbursement challenges.

Mr. Gephardt closed the panel by sharing two personal stories.  As a kid, his neighbor was diagnosed with polio, and he and his family were terrified of acquiring polio.  But, Dr. Salk solved the problem through the discovery and development of the polio vaccine, which he said “gave us life when we anticipated death.”  Then, in 1972, his young son was diagnosed with terminal cancer.  But, doctors suggested trying an experimental triple drug therapy – and now his son Matt is 39 and has two sons of his own.  So, to Mr. Gephardt, this is the most important issue in the world.  There is still so much opportunity for discovery – we just need to think together, work together and converse together to create solutions.

William Tansey, III, M.D., Chair of the Board of the Liberty Science Center, thanked the sponsors for holding this event at the Liberty Science Center, and noted that interactive science centers are part of the solution because they give kids genuine, hands-on experiences.