Latest / Making Medicine / Innovation at a Crossroads | Live at JPM 2026 (Part 1)

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Innovation at a Crossroads | Live at JPM 2026 (Part 1) · Making Medicine

0:00
Speaker 1: At making medicine. We're reporting on the headlines, not making
0:03
Speaker 1: medical recommendations. For personal health questions, always consult a doctor.
0:08
Speaker 1: Nothing in this episode constitutes investment, financial, or legal advice,
0:12
Speaker 1: and please consult your own advisors before making decisions. We're
0:23
Speaker 1: going to kick off this incredible morning, Thank you for
0:25
Speaker 1: being here, and I'm going to bring up to the
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Speaker 1: stage two of our incredible panelists, so please join me
0:30
Speaker 1: on welcoming Senator Richard Burr and Commissioner Phil Hogan. I
0:47
Speaker 1: very foolishly left my iPad just far enough out of reach,
0:51
Speaker 1: so we're going to have to do these bios from memory.
0:53
Speaker 1: But that's what's nice about pretty important panelists. I'll start
0:58
Speaker 1: on the far left for those of you who don't
1:00
Speaker 1: know them. Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina had pretty
1:05
Speaker 1: much every possible health policy shaping perspective over the last
1:11
Speaker 1: three decades. He was a member of the House of
1:14
Speaker 1: Representatives before becoming Senator. He is why we have ARPA,
1:18
Speaker 1: h he is why the NIH has forty five billion dollars,
1:22
Speaker 1: and he oversaw a number of FDA reauthorizations that very
1:26
Speaker 1: well define things like accelerated approval and various pathways so
1:30
Speaker 1: there isn't someone coming out of the US Congress in
1:34
Speaker 1: the last thirty years that would be better fit for
1:37
Speaker 1: the stage. And he's been willing to do this breakfast
1:40
Speaker 1: with us a few years in a row. Now A
1:42
Speaker 1: sitting to his right, Commissioner Phil Hogan. You know, it's
1:46
Speaker 1: tough to match Richard Burr, but I think we did it.
1:50
Speaker 1: And a native irishman and a lengthy, lengthy list of
1:55
Speaker 1: accolades that led to a number of commission posts in
2:00
Speaker 1: European Union, most recently as a Commissioner for Trade, and
2:03
Speaker 1: he now advises DLA Piper. But how crazy is it
2:07
Speaker 1: that the building we are in Hibernia For those of
2:11
Speaker 1: you not caught up on your Latin, Hibernia is Latin
2:13
Speaker 1: for Ireland. So I think it's very fitting that we're here.
2:17
Speaker 1: And so I'm going to be quiet and let you
2:19
Speaker 1: share some insights. And let's start with you, Senator BurrH.
2:23
Speaker 1: Very high level since the last time we sat in
2:25
Speaker 1: these chairs, the second Trump administration, MAHA, FDA tariffs. What
2:34
Speaker 1: do you make of twenty twenty five for the biotech community?
2:39
Speaker 2: Makes you want to go back to bed, doesn't it? Listen? John,
2:44
Speaker 2: I think we said a year ago this was going
2:47
Speaker 2: to be a very challenging administration, and that we thought
2:53
Speaker 2: at the time that the focus was going to be
2:56
Speaker 2: on reducing the size of the federal government and then
2:59
Speaker 2: beginning to reshape the responsibilities of each agency. I'll be
3:05
Speaker 2: honest with you, I think we've seen exactly what we predicted,
3:10
Speaker 2: and that was not a tough thing to do, because
3:13
Speaker 2: what this administration has done is everything that they ran
3:16
Speaker 2: on in the election cycle. Now there are surprises like
3:22
Speaker 2: the vaccine disclosures that they made last week, the changes,
3:27
Speaker 2: and it disrupts the market in a lot of different ways.
3:33
Speaker 2: But one word that we really stressed last year was
3:37
Speaker 2: that this administration would be disruptive, and I think we've
3:42
Speaker 2: seen exactly that. I'll say this at the beginning, and
3:45
Speaker 2: I'm going to say it when we conclude. The one
3:49
Speaker 2: takeaway from our time on the stage is that in chaos,
3:55
Speaker 2: there is opportunity. And the question is are you going
3:59
Speaker 2: to focus on the chaos and how that impacts you.
4:02
Speaker 2: Are you going to spend the time trying to focus
4:04
Speaker 2: on where the opportunity is and begin to chase that.
4:08
Speaker 2: And I think that's why it's so important that there's
4:10
Speaker 2: an event like this in San Francisco. It's what we
4:14
Speaker 2: at DLA focus on, both in Washington and and Brussels
4:19
Speaker 2: every day is where is the next opportunity for our clients.
4:24
Speaker 2: Where do we need to skate to? We want to
4:26
Speaker 2: skate to where the puck's going to be, not where
4:28
Speaker 2: it is today. And I would say when we get
4:32
Speaker 2: together in a year from now, the subject will probably
4:36
Speaker 2: start with how many new sub sectors have been created
4:40
Speaker 2: that are emerging technologies, whether they happen in AI, whether
4:44
Speaker 2: they happen anywhere else. Across the list of policy issues,
4:51
Speaker 2: I will tell you that technology is going to be transformational,
4:55
Speaker 2: and we've got to keep our eye on that.
4:59
Speaker 1: Commissioner across the pond, around the globe. What stood out
5:04
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty five to you that is relevant to
5:07
Speaker 1: this room, Well.
5:09
Speaker 3: I think the first thing that the Europeans didn't understand
5:12
Speaker 3: that maybe President Trump would be re elected. It took
5:15
Speaker 3: a while to understand that that was possible, and they
5:19
Speaker 3: weren't exactly prepared for the scale of his victory. But
5:22
Speaker 3: he set out very quickly what the three issues relating
5:26
Speaker 3: to Europe were. He wanted to close the trade in
5:28
Speaker 3: goods deficit, increase the contributions for security in defense and
5:32
Speaker 3: NAT contributions, and the ligne the European Union and the
5:36
Speaker 3: United States better in relation to China. So these are
5:40
Speaker 3: the things that he had said in twenty seventeen. So
5:43
Speaker 3: if you read the National Security Statement of that time,
5:47
Speaker 3: which he repeated in recent weeks, shouldn't be a big
5:51
Speaker 3: surprise that he doesn't recognize an entity called the European Union,
5:55
Speaker 3: and therefore he likes to deal by latterly with members
5:58
Speaker 3: state by member state.
6:00
Speaker 2: Such as it is.
6:01
Speaker 3: We now have a situation where Farmer is no longer
6:04
Speaker 3: part of geopolitical immunity. It's part of the trade negotiations.
6:10
Speaker 3: So the good old days Farmer and the health and
6:13
Speaker 3: when medicines and vaccines and all that was treated separately
6:16
Speaker 3: as essential part of everyday life politically for the citizens'
6:20
Speaker 3: well being. Now it's part of a trade negotiation. And
6:24
Speaker 3: certainly over the last couple of months and leading up
6:28
Speaker 3: to the deal, with the political agreement rather than a
6:30
Speaker 3: trade agreement in July, you can see that Farmer was
6:33
Speaker 3: very much focused on It was very much in the
6:36
Speaker 3: president's mind, and he sees a little country called Ireland
6:39
Speaker 3: in the firing line as well, with so many companies
6:42
Speaker 3: based there for the European market. But as Senator Borah
6:45
Speaker 3: said the end of the day, we have to see
6:47
Speaker 3: what we can do to mitigate some of the concerns
6:51
Speaker 3: that the farmer community have because they're seeing very positively
6:55
Speaker 3: in the European Union, the farmer industry, high value jobs,
7:00
Speaker 3: you know, major investments right across the European Union, and
7:04
Speaker 3: we are going to try and make sure that all
7:06
Speaker 3: of those plans are happy where they are rather than
7:09
Speaker 3: moving anywhere else. But I suspect that there will be
7:12
Speaker 3: some trade offs and expansion plans in the short term.
7:15
Speaker 3: But there's four hundred and fifty million people in the
7:17
Speaker 3: European market and that's you know, companies don't go there
7:21
Speaker 3: for no reason, so they're there for good reason and
7:24
Speaker 3: working together in the United States and the European Union
7:27
Speaker 3: over the years, we've had a huge market opportunity and
7:30
Speaker 3: we have a huge success that has now disrupted, and
7:33
Speaker 3: we have to manage that.
7:35
Speaker 2: You might be sitting there thanking boy Phil Hogan's lucky
7:38
Speaker 2: because he's not the EU Commissioner of Trade now he
7:45
Speaker 2: was in the past. Well think about it. His US
7:49
Speaker 2: counterpart at the time was Bob Lethheuser. He was held
7:52
Speaker 2: of a lot tougher on trade than is the current
7:55
Speaker 2: folks in the administration. He has mastered some of the
7:59
Speaker 2: biggest battles between the European Union and the US on trade. Already.
8:06
Speaker 2: This is light in comparison to some of the things
8:09
Speaker 2: you went through, isn't it. Phil.
8:10
Speaker 3: It's all about personality, and Bob Leideiser was a certain
8:13
Speaker 3: personality for sure.
8:15
Speaker 1: Like President Trump, I want to stay with you, Commissioner
8:19
Speaker 1: on one of the things. One of the themes of
8:23
Speaker 1: last year this American centric two things. One is you
8:28
Speaker 1: said Pharma got put on the table when typically they
8:31
Speaker 1: have not had a roll in trade, they have been
8:34
Speaker 1: exempt from these conversations. But the one that we heard
8:37
Speaker 1: the most about was President Trump's focus on this most
8:41
Speaker 1: Favored Nation idea, this MFN and this real pushback on
8:47
Speaker 1: well the price is abroad or different than the prices
8:49
Speaker 1: in the US. How did that get heard on the
8:53
Speaker 1: other side of the ocean. And what do you make
8:58
Speaker 1: of the United kingdomsnnouncement in some sense acceding to that,
9:04
Speaker 1: saying we're going to double our spending. We're going to
9:06
Speaker 1: begin valuing drugs better more. How is that perceived over there?
9:11
Speaker 3: Well, the first reaction to Anie mentioned by an American
9:14
Speaker 3: administration under President Trump about MFAN is is Evan reactivate
9:19
Speaker 3: their interest in the WTO. So this was a big
9:22
Speaker 3: surprise that MFN was even mentioned. The second thing, there's
9:26
Speaker 3: an expectation by the American administration that we do something
9:30
Speaker 3: similar to the UK. But the UK is a single entity.
9:34
Speaker 3: The EU is twenty seven different entities and twenty seven
9:37
Speaker 3: members states when it comes to reenforsements. So unless member
9:40
Speaker 3: states want to do something in reienborsements. And I know
9:42
Speaker 3: that some companies are doing some deals in the last
9:46
Speaker 3: few months to try and improve things, but it's not
9:49
Speaker 3: possible for the EU as a single entity to do
9:52
Speaker 3: what the UK was able to do with the US.
9:55
Speaker 3: So I want to get you can forget about that.
9:58
Speaker 3: So I think MF is a distraction. Reinforcements at an
10:02
Speaker 3: EU level is a distraction. It'll be member states driven
10:06
Speaker 3: and companies driven, and companies are doing deals. So that's
10:10
Speaker 3: the way it's shaping up in that respect.
10:14
Speaker 1: And Sinat or Burr, I think something that we are
10:18
Speaker 1: beginning to inherit. I'm a pivot here. MAHA wasn't in
10:22
Speaker 1: our vocabulary two years ago and now it is. There's
10:27
Speaker 1: a focus on lifestyle changes, to be sure, and an
10:30
Speaker 1: emphasis on healthier lives, but there's also been a skepticism
10:35
Speaker 1: of the role of medicine. Where did MAHA get to
10:40
Speaker 1: last year and where do you see it going in
10:43
Speaker 1: the year to come.
10:46
Speaker 2: John's great question, because first you have to start with
10:49
Speaker 2: what's the definition of MAHA? And that seems to be
10:53
Speaker 2: a plane that they're building while they fly it. I
10:57
Speaker 2: know we have a lot of clients to come in
10:58
Speaker 2: and say what how does it specifically work? And the
11:01
Speaker 2: fact is it's open for interpretation. Like a lot of
11:06
Speaker 2: new regulation within this administration, there's not statutory language that
11:12
Speaker 2: backs it up, and there's really not regulatory language that's
11:15
Speaker 2: written by the agencies yet. So it takes a tremendous
11:19
Speaker 2: amount of intelligence work, which is where we spend a
11:23
Speaker 2: lot of our time these days. This is probably a
11:25
Speaker 2: good place for me to say this that there are
11:28
Speaker 2: issues that probably everybody in this room has from time
11:32
Speaker 2: to time that you either solve yourself or you look
11:35
Speaker 2: to people to solve. There is in the current administration
11:41
Speaker 2: and the current makeup of Congress. There's no substitute for
11:45
Speaker 2: having a parallel effort to fix in that policy issue
11:49
Speaker 2: that you've gotten with educating members of Congress and members
11:53
Speaker 2: of the administration about your business, about healthcare in total,
12:00
Speaker 2: and about where they need to skate to with the
12:03
Speaker 2: puck it does. It's no good if regulators aren't on
12:07
Speaker 2: the same path as we are. What's the unique opportunity.
12:10
Speaker 2: What's the opportunity in the chaos. The opportunity in the
12:13
Speaker 2: chaos is exactly what John said to you earlier. If
12:16
Speaker 2: you will take a position, if you will be vocal,
12:19
Speaker 2: if you will engage, then you can begin to shape,
12:24
Speaker 2: in fact, what the regulatory language looks like. You shape
12:27
Speaker 2: the direction that you're headed in, because you're going to
12:31
Speaker 2: shape where they go. And I think we spend a
12:34
Speaker 2: majority of our time right now trying to encourage clients.
12:38
Speaker 2: Bring your CEO to Capitol Hill, give us a day
12:41
Speaker 2: a quarter, let us take them in front of key
12:43
Speaker 2: members of the House and the Senate. Let's begin the
12:46
Speaker 2: educational process. Even for those companies that are here that
12:50
Speaker 2: have your own government operations. I got to tell you,
12:54
Speaker 2: it's awfully refreshing to be able to have an outside
12:58
Speaker 2: set of eyes looking at the plan that you've got
13:01
Speaker 2: and expanding the number of portals that we've got to
13:04
Speaker 2: get in, whether it's the administration or the Congress. But
13:07
Speaker 2: there's there's absolutely no downside to this increased engagement. There's
13:13
Speaker 2: only upside because short of a couple of things happening
13:17
Speaker 2: that I don't think they will, we have three years
13:20
Speaker 2: and one and almost one month left about Wrightville left
13:26
Speaker 2: of this.
13:27
Speaker 1: A clock behind your head counting down.
13:30
Speaker 2: This is like the debt clock, isn't it. And so
13:35
Speaker 2: you're not going to wake up tomorrow and all of
13:36
Speaker 2: a sudden they're going to change directions and go one
13:39
Speaker 2: hundred and eighty degrees the opposite direction. We know where
13:42
Speaker 2: they're going.
13:44
Speaker 3: So I want to reinforce this point as a European
13:47
Speaker 3: level as well, where people and companies often underestimate the
13:52
Speaker 3: lack of knowledge of public representatives in relation to what
13:55
Speaker 3: you're talked about. So if you ignore that reality and
14:00
Speaker 3: you do nothing about it, but they'll continue to have
14:02
Speaker 3: a lack of knowledge, That's kind of sensible, isn't Is it?
14:04
Speaker 3: What I'm saying trying to give a message here that
14:07
Speaker 3: I farmer companies and healthcare companies don't know the member
14:12
Speaker 3: of the European Parliament or their member of parliament in
14:14
Speaker 3: their area where they have their investments. Don't expect them
14:17
Speaker 3: to be able to represent you very well when there's
14:18
Speaker 3: a problem about pricing, about reinforcements, about MFN. They don't
14:22
Speaker 3: understand it if you don't tell them about it. They
14:24
Speaker 3: have so many other things in their desk. So this
14:26
Speaker 3: is I want to reinforce point that Senator Burrough is
14:28
Speaker 3: making that this sometimes comes back to the lack of information,
14:32
Speaker 3: lack of knowledge, and lack of understanding of your public
14:35
Speaker 3: representative to the big issues that affect your company and
14:38
Speaker 3: infect your business.
14:40
Speaker 1: Here here, I think that's critically important, and I don't
14:44
Speaker 1: think people do what you're saying. Cenator of CEO. Once
14:49
Speaker 1: a quarter, come to Washington, managing partner the fund. Once
14:52
Speaker 1: a quarter, come to Washington. Explain what you're doing, Explain
14:56
Speaker 1: the science you're investing in.
14:58
Speaker 2: But one of the key.
14:58
Speaker 1: Topics I think this year has to be who were
15:02
Speaker 1: explaining science to in the US and that what has
15:06
Speaker 1: happened at the FDA over the last year. I think
15:10
Speaker 1: I could speak, I wouldn't be bold enough to speak
15:12
Speaker 1: for this whole room. But most of the room needs
15:14
Speaker 1: a stable, predictable FDA in order to move forward with
15:20
Speaker 1: their investments. Do you see that coming forward in twenty
15:24
Speaker 1: twenty six, and from your own client work, and again
15:27
Speaker 1: as someone who regulated the FDA oversaw the FDA, what
15:31
Speaker 1: do you make of that as a disruption and is
15:34
Speaker 1: it something that we can navigate around a messy FDA?
15:43
Speaker 2: Johnny seems that the FDA has been somewhat a revolving
15:47
Speaker 2: door from a standpoint of the key people. And I'm
15:56
Speaker 2: not sure that there's any more stability today than there
15:59
Speaker 2: was maybe three three weeks ago or three months ago.
16:03
Speaker 2: But Commissioner mccrary's in town, Bob Foster General counsels in
16:07
Speaker 2: town for JPM. So there's an opportunity to engage with them.
16:11
Speaker 2: If you see them, corner them in a room, and
16:14
Speaker 2: I think you'll find that they will engage with you.
16:16
Speaker 2: But here's the problem. Most of your CEOs that I
16:20
Speaker 2: have an opportunity to meet with, say, you know, I
16:22
Speaker 2: went to speech and to an event and McCary spoke
16:26
Speaker 2: last week and he said all the right things. I agree,
16:31
Speaker 2: and therein lies the problem. So we're relying on stepping
16:36
Speaker 2: back into statutory language and trying to find a pathway
16:40
Speaker 2: through that statutory language to get clients some resolution on
16:45
Speaker 2: applications and review times and that type of thing. I
16:50
Speaker 2: think that the administration is very knowledgeable right now of
16:53
Speaker 2: the capital flight of biotechnology and the dollars that it
16:59
Speaker 2: takes to finance that runway. And let me just say
17:03
Speaker 2: that eighty percent of the technologies that are in the
17:05
Speaker 2: marketplace globally right now will not find the capital that
17:11
Speaker 2: they need to cross the goal line unless we're able
17:15
Speaker 2: to create a different timeline within the review process at FDA.
17:19
Speaker 2: And it really doesn't matter whether you're an orphan drug
17:22
Speaker 2: or whether you're a totally new compound drug application. That's
17:27
Speaker 2: disturbing because certainty is absolutely crucial to the process, more
17:33
Speaker 2: from a standpoint of financing than it is from a
17:36
Speaker 2: standpoint of any other aspect of the development process. And
17:43
Speaker 2: we're headed into a period of time. Maybe you guys
17:46
Speaker 2: have heard this word AI sort of dominates everybody's conversation,
17:52
Speaker 2: But what we're learning is that AI is more than
17:55
Speaker 2: just AI the platform. It's AI robotics, it's AI healthcare.
18:00
Speaker 2: I can get into all the sub sectors and all
18:02
Speaker 2: of these things are going to impact everybody in the room.
18:05
Speaker 2: It's not just the platform technology, it's all the above,
18:09
Speaker 2: and it's every sector of the economy. So as a firm,
18:12
Speaker 2: we're sitting down now, we're trying to break down all
18:15
Speaker 2: of these sub sectors to make sure that we've got
18:18
Speaker 2: the subject matter expertise to address the nuances of each
18:23
Speaker 2: sub sector. That's where it's really going to get interesting,
18:27
Speaker 2: and it's where the relationship with an administration and with
18:31
Speaker 2: agencies is going to be so crucial because they don't
18:35
Speaker 2: understand it at that level. It's hard for him to
18:37
Speaker 2: comprehend it up here, but when you start digging down.
18:41
Speaker 2: But that's really where we're going to make the progress
18:44
Speaker 2: for clients.
18:47
Speaker 1: It's in the shadow of all of these arguments of
18:53
Speaker 1: the risks of bad policy is that the US being
18:58
Speaker 1: the de facto global leader in biopharma has been pretty
19:02
Speaker 1: absolute for a couple decades. I think that conclusion is weakening.
19:07
Speaker 1: And Commissioner, one of the things that was a hallmark
19:10
Speaker 1: of your tenure was the European Union's position with China,
19:16
Speaker 1: and so I am curious how you see China's rise
19:22
Speaker 1: in almost every sector, but for US, in particular their
19:26
Speaker 1: innovation growth. How does the European Union think about countering that, Well, you.
19:32
Speaker 3: Kind of stop any geographical region of the world being innovative,
19:38
Speaker 3: and as long as they comply with the rules of
19:41
Speaker 3: the game, well on a level of playing field, well
19:44
Speaker 3: then you can have any problem with that. We have competitors,
19:48
Speaker 3: but we want fair competition and the protection of the
19:51
Speaker 3: European Single Market is key, and Europe are using a
19:55
Speaker 3: lot more of its trade defense instruments now, like farm
19:58
Speaker 3: subsidy regulation, in order to I suppose stop entities wherever
20:03
Speaker 3: they're from, from damaging and undercutting European companies. And in
20:10
Speaker 3: the context of the Single market in my time it
20:14
Speaker 3: was certainly in twenty twenty there was a big increase
20:17
Speaker 3: in the number of trade defense measure has been taken
20:20
Speaker 3: by various jurisdictions who were beaming into the Single Market
20:22
Speaker 3: from toward countries in an unfair way, and that's going
20:26
Speaker 3: to continue. So there's a much more assertiveness now on
20:29
Speaker 3: part of the European Union to protect the Single Market
20:31
Speaker 3: in terms of trade defense measures. But at the same time,
20:35
Speaker 3: the German economy, for example, forty percent of his industrial
20:38
Speaker 3: exports are export to the China. So we can't switch
20:43
Speaker 3: off the tap if people expect, if President Trump expects
20:47
Speaker 3: the European Union to be able to overnight say we're
20:49
Speaker 3: abandoning decoupling. It's now de risking. I don't know what
20:53
Speaker 3: it'll be tomorrow or Wednesday, but that's the world has
20:56
Speaker 3: been used. So the reality is this that Europe is
20:59
Speaker 3: a is a very important economic entity for China and
21:03
Speaker 3: the United States. We do three trillion.
21:05
Speaker 2: By the way, with the United.
21:06
Speaker 3: States, you just as a matter of trying that figure
21:09
Speaker 3: out there, there's a lot of money per anum.
21:13
Speaker 1: We'll make sure they cover.
21:14
Speaker 3: That was a three trade trillion. Yes, a trade had
21:16
Speaker 3: been done on an annual base. So but China is
21:20
Speaker 3: on the march economically. China is innovative. We have no
21:25
Speaker 3: problem but that as long as to play the game fairly.
21:27
Speaker 3: But when it comes to security and defense and duel technology,
21:30
Speaker 3: then we have a problem. And that's why we're going
21:32
Speaker 3: to be very protective and we are more very aligned
21:34
Speaker 3: with the United States when it comes to that. So
21:37
Speaker 3: this is a big develop change in direction as well
21:40
Speaker 3: as much more assertive in working together with our like
21:43
Speaker 3: minded allas in making sure that you know technology is
21:47
Speaker 3: not used for malign.
21:48
Speaker 2: Purposes, John, we had something here. The US and the
21:53
Speaker 2: EU are linked stronger today than they've ever been from
21:57
Speaker 2: a standpoint of the commercial markets. And I know that
22:00
Speaker 2: that might seem a little strange to some, But the
22:05
Speaker 2: risk is the same there as it is here. So
22:09
Speaker 2: when we see something like we did ten days ago now,
22:13
Speaker 2: which is the operation in Venezuela, Phil and I both
22:19
Speaker 2: have to sit and think about how does this impact
22:22
Speaker 2: clients in the EU. How does the impact clients in
22:25
Speaker 2: the United States. Many of you may be sitting there
22:28
Speaker 2: saying doesn't affect us, No, it does, because there's a
22:31
Speaker 2: reaction by Russia, there's a reaction by China, there's an
22:34
Speaker 2: reaction reaction by Iran and others. Because of that operation,
22:39
Speaker 2: that will have some distinct impact on your businesses. The
22:45
Speaker 2: challenge is identifying what those are and, as Phil said,
22:49
Speaker 2: finding a way to mitigate potentially.
22:51
Speaker 3: What that risk is. I think that's a fundamental plant
22:54
Speaker 3: that Senator bor has mentioned. It's supposed how the world
22:57
Speaker 3: is all dependent on each other. Like we say that
23:00
Speaker 3: globalization is no longer globalization, and reality is wishes whether
23:06
Speaker 3: we like it or not. Well, if people want to
23:08
Speaker 3: be a protectionist. That's the political mantra. That's fine whether
23:12
Speaker 3: that's in the United States or France or wherever. But
23:16
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, we depend on each
23:18
Speaker 3: other globally for all of the spare parts, for all
23:21
Speaker 3: of the various component parts, for all of the various
23:23
Speaker 3: ingredients and raw materials for to make our own region
23:27
Speaker 3: very strong domestically in terms of manufacturing or in terms
23:30
Speaker 3: of employment opportunities. So open trade is there and is
23:34
Speaker 3: going to remain whether we like it or not. And
23:36
Speaker 3: the technology that will be driven through AI and other
23:39
Speaker 3: technologies is even going to make it more accentuated that statement.
23:44
Speaker 2: I think think ifil still had the responsibility for trade
23:47
Speaker 2: relations for the European Union and bid in China's dumping
23:52
Speaker 2: more ev cours into Germany than they are anywhere outside
23:57
Speaker 2: of China in the world. Yet Germany is forty percent
24:01
Speaker 2: relying on China as a marketplace. So standing up is
24:06
Speaker 2: a pretty tough thing to say, cut off the dumping
24:10
Speaker 2: in our country, where the United States just said do ide,
24:14
Speaker 2: you're not allowed to come in the country. I mean,
24:17
Speaker 2: these are different approaches, but we all have the same
24:19
Speaker 2: potential problem. And I will tell you that the US
24:25
Speaker 2: and the EU have to have similar solutions to it,
24:29
Speaker 2: because our economy links are much more important than potentially
24:35
Speaker 2: our links to China, or to Russia or to elsewhere
24:39
Speaker 2: in the world.
24:41
Speaker 1: We're going to dig deeper into a handful of those
24:43
Speaker 1: when Kirsten leads a walkthrough of the survey responses. So
24:47
Speaker 1: I want to close with when you're both back here
24:52
Speaker 1: next year. We've covered Maha, We've covered China, We've covered
24:56
Speaker 1: the FDA, we've covered drug pricing, all these headwinds and opportunities.
25:02
Speaker 1: What do you see as the single biggest thing that
25:04
Speaker 1: will have shaped twenty twenty six? Maybe start with you, Senator,
25:08
Speaker 1: and close with you, Commissioner.
25:13
Speaker 2: John. If you ask me today what I think is
25:15
Speaker 2: going to shape twenty twenty six, it's going to be
25:19
Speaker 2: a continuation as it relates to healthcare. It's going to
25:21
Speaker 2: be a continuation of the of the change that the
25:27
Speaker 2: American people are in the process of making. Now let
25:30
Speaker 2: me define that a little bit. If you're in the
25:34
Speaker 2: liquor business today and you're not looking at the consumption
25:37
Speaker 2: of alcohol for the thirty five and undergroup and looking
25:41
Speaker 2: at the trend line go like this, then you've made
25:43
Speaker 2: a huge mistake. And what you find is that the
25:47
Speaker 2: thirty five and under have changed their diets. They've changed
25:54
Speaker 2: the intake of what they take in. This has nothing
25:56
Speaker 2: to do with trade, It has nothing to do with policy.
25:59
Speaker 2: It has everything to do with decisions they make. And
26:05
Speaker 2: I think we are sort of ignorant at these changes
26:09
Speaker 2: as they happen unless they impact our sales projection or
26:14
Speaker 2: our revenue line. And just like I talked about Venezuela
26:18
Speaker 2: having a geopolitical impact on economies, so do these trends.
26:23
Speaker 2: Because if you see it in alcohol, you're going to
26:25
Speaker 2: see it in other things, and it's going to be
26:27
Speaker 2: demonstrable and there will always be outliers to that. But
26:35
Speaker 2: I think that we've got to look for these core
26:38
Speaker 2: trend changes that give us an indication as to where
26:43
Speaker 2: the public is eventually going to go. It is impossible
26:47
Speaker 2: for me to tell you that we spend every day
26:49
Speaker 2: trying to skate where the puck's going to be and
26:50
Speaker 2: not where it is, and not tell you that. If
26:54
Speaker 2: you're only looking at this in a stagnant world and
26:58
Speaker 2: trying to guide your company, government affairs policy for today
27:04
Speaker 2: versus tomorrow, you've made a huge mistake.
27:08
Speaker 1: Sure closing thoughts, thank you, John.
27:12
Speaker 3: I think that during the course of twenty six there's
27:15
Speaker 3: going to be a roller coaster for the pharmer sector
27:18
Speaker 3: and other sectors around semiconductors, around digital From a European perspective,
27:24
Speaker 3: there's quite a big worry about the fact that a
27:27
Speaker 3: political agreement, which is not a trade agreement, it can
27:30
Speaker 3: be changed at a moment's notice, depending on the whim
27:32
Speaker 3: of the President of the United States, and that's a concern.
27:36
Speaker 3: So I think that there will be a roller coaster
27:39
Speaker 3: during the course of the year where we'll culminate in
27:42
Speaker 3: hopefully around May or June with an agreement. And if
27:45
Speaker 3: there will be such an agreement, you know, we get
27:48
Speaker 3: some tariff exemptions on carve outs for supply commitments. And
27:53
Speaker 3: thirdly that we would you know, ensure that we get
27:57
Speaker 3: predictability and stability in relation to pricing, in relation to
28:01
Speaker 3: the rollout of new products and new therapies. If we
28:04
Speaker 3: could achieve that, it'll be wonderful, But I'd say it
28:06
Speaker 3: there's going to be many bumps in the road along
28:08
Speaker 3: the way. The alternative is that we have instability, we
28:12
Speaker 3: have a row about pricing, we were ow about everything,
28:15
Speaker 3: and then it feeds into the digital agenda, as trade
28:17
Speaker 3: offs are into the environmental taxes through SEABAM or other
28:22
Speaker 3: such messy issues. And then we have the mid term
28:25
Speaker 3: elections in November. So Senator Borah and I were just
28:29
Speaker 3: discussing this earlier, like you haven't le end of June
28:31
Speaker 3: to solve these issues because the mid term.
28:33
Speaker 2: Election starts in the first of July.
28:35
Speaker 3: But what is the president going to present in terms
28:39
Speaker 3: of the affordability agenda to the people of the United
28:41
Speaker 3: States and the context of the election. I'm sure pharma
28:44
Speaker 3: and energy and these type of issues are not going
28:46
Speaker 3: to be excluded from the agenda.
28:49
Speaker 2: It's really tough when we talk about elections up here
28:51
Speaker 2: because you know, the deficiency in the United States is
28:54
Speaker 2: we teach about US government and elections. We don't teach
28:59
Speaker 2: about the rest of the world world ninety percent of
29:01
Speaker 2: the rest of the world is snap elections. So we
29:04
Speaker 2: have certainty in elections. We will have one this year.
29:07
Speaker 2: It will impact the economy, it will impact our opportunities
29:11
Speaker 2: at policy changes. But think about twenty seven members of
29:15
Speaker 2: the European Union, where at any point you could have
29:17
Speaker 2: a snap election and governments literally fall overnight and change. John,
29:24
Speaker 2: I want to end on what I started. Yes, there
29:27
Speaker 2: is chaos, and it's coming in a number of different ways.
29:30
Speaker 2: It's coming from administration, it's coming from merging technologies. But
29:34
Speaker 2: there is also opportunity, and the opportunities can far outweigh
29:38
Speaker 2: the chaos if in fact that's what you're focused on.
29:42
Speaker 1: For some reason, roller coaster sounds better in an Irish accent.
29:48
Speaker 1: Please join me in thanking Senator Richard Burg, Missioner Phil Hogan,