Latest / Making Medicine / Big Beautiful Bill Breakdown, Orphan Cures Win, and What’s Next | Making Medicine Podcast Relaunch

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Big Beautiful Bill Breakdown, Orphan Cures Win, and What’s Next | Making Medicine Podcast Relaunch · Making Medicine

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Making Medicine Podcast, where science,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: policy and innovation meet. As always, I'm your host, John Stanford.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: We're excited for our official relaunch of the Making Medicine Podcast,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: which will now be offering weekly content across YouTube and
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: social media to keep you updated on current events. There's
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: just too much going on and we've really listened to
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: our membership and followers that they want more content in
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: easy ways to digest that keeps them up to date
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: on where Washington is impacting your business. We're going to
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: have monthly special guest interviews, Q and A sessions driven
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: by you, on site coverage at conventions, conferences, and much more.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: We'll keep you updated every week as we ramp up
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: on content on where you can find it. But for now,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: you can tune in every Thursday morning right here on
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: our YouTube channel for a brand new episode each and
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: every week. And with that, let's get into the show.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: There's no doubt that Washington has been solely focused on
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill and now
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: it's law. What's important to take away at the very
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: highest level is it's a huge tax cut and continuation
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: of existing tax cuts I don't think folks were super
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: aware that the largest tax hike in history was headed
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: our direction if no action was taken. That's why it
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: was critically important for Republicans to act so that they
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: weren't in charge overseeing this huge tax hike. So that's
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: what most of the bill does. There are some specifics
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: we're going to get into, but the easiest thing to
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: think of is it's a continuation of most of the
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: tax policy as well as some new special tax cuts
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: that are impacting business and individuals. But to pay for
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: those tax cuts, the Trump administration, as well as Republicans
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: in Congress, proposed a lot of ideas, most of which
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: are increasing the deficit. According to the Congressional Budget off,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the bill increases the deficit about four trillion dollars, but
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: that doesn't cover all the spending of the tax cuts.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: So they looked even further and what there's been a
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: lot of discussion about the negatives of this bill is
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: the nearly one trillion dollar hit to America's social safety net,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: mostly covered by Medicaid. One study suggested that approximately eleven
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: million Americans will lose access to health coverage through the
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: cuts and changes to Medicaid. There's also deep cuts to
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: food assistance programs around the country. There are concerns about
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: impacts to rural health care. While some steps were taken
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: at the last moments to address some of these concerns,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the big picture is tax cuts in exchange for an
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: increased deficit and cuts to social safety net, as well
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: as some of the green tax credits that were part
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: of the Biden administration. So what does this all mean
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: for biotech, venture capital and the folks who call Incubate home.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: There's no doubt that it's a pro oh business bill,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: immediate bonus appreciation, which is a fancy way of saying
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: you can deduct everything you spend in the year you
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: spend it, the making permanent of the research and Development
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: tax deduction. These are all things that give a green
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: light to American companies to spend more dollars. But there
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: are also some specifics that impact only the biotech community.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Most notably is the inclusion of the Orphan Cures Act.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: This is something Incubate has fought hard for. It addresses
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: one of the fundamental flaws and disincentives of the Inflation
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Reduction Act. This one, in particular, made rare disease less
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: attractive for investment by not allowing companies to explore secondary
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: indications at the risk of price controlling their medicines. Many
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: companies reacted to this policy by not looking at something
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: science knows all too well what works in one part
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: of the body might work in another. So we are
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: really pleased to see the one big, beautiful bill solve
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: this problem by allowing additional indications, and I think the
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: industry can celebrate as a whole that we took our
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: first crack at fixing the Inflation Reduction Act. But unfortunately,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: all of those fixes to the Inflation Reduction Act were
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: not included, most notably the EPIC Act, which Incubate joined
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: with dozens of leading venture capitalists and state biotech associations
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: in calling for this reform that would end the pill penalty.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: That was not included in the bill. There's some hope
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: that it might be addressed later in the year, and
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Incubate will keep you updated on that. Also not included
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: in the bill was a much ballyhooed cut to pharmacy
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: benefit managers those PBMs or middlemen that have been very
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: talked about in Washington over recent years. One recent study
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: suggested that forty two cents of every dollar spent on
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: drugs actually goes to these middlemen, and Congress was eyeing
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: them closely as a way to pay for big elements
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: of the Beautiful Bill, But ultimately that was cut out,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: and so PBMs will live to be challenged another day,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: as this will continue to be an area of focus
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: of Congress. But addressing PBM reforms was not included in
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: this bill, but sometimes not being included as a win,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: and that's certainly the case with the Most Favored Nations policy.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Incubate worked diligently, including flying in venture capitalists from around
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: the country to meet swiftly with members of Congress to
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: explain that Most Favored Nations the idea that we would
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: set our prices in country to the prices paid for
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: drugs in price controlled countries in Europe and Japan. We
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: brought people to Congress to say that would be a
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: death knell to the industry. One study suggested it could
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: cost one trillion dollars over the next ten years should
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: this be implemented. We are pleased to say it did
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: not become part of the One Big, Beautiful Bill, and
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: in fact, very little of industry was used to pay
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: for some of these tax credits and tax cuts that
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: the bill pushes forward. We'll still be watching to see
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: if the Trump administration takes any steps towards most favored
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: nation through executive action, but for now, Congress on both
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: sides of the aisle, no, this is a step too far.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Today's episode focused on the one Big, Beautiful Bill, but
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: we'll be back next week to talk about the many
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: things that are still in the news and probably on
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: your radar. President Trump's announcement of potentially two hundred percent
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: tariffs on pharmaceutical products over the quote next year or
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: year and a half. How's that for uncertainty. We'll also
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: be looking at efforts to save NIH cuts that have
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: been debated in the courts, and we're beginning to gear
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: up for a discussion about what the next FDA should
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: look like while the current FDA is making strides on
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: AI changing what Phase one trials could look like and
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: so much more so, we'll be covering those in future episodes.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: That's all for this episode of the Making Medicine Podcast.
• 7:07
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• 7:10
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• 7:14
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• 7:17
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• 7:21
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