Letter: Rep. Peters' Drug Pricing Plan Will Protect San Diego's Innovative Biotech Startups

By Editor, Times of San Diego

October 31, 2021

As a scientist and founder of a startup biotech company involved in discovery of innovative medicines for fibrosis and cancer, I would like to express my support for Rep. Scott Peters and his leadership in providing a plan for lowering drug prices as an alternative to H.R.3, a drug pricing bill that would harm innovation and drug discovery in San Diego.

The output of innovative drugs by the U.S. life science industry outweighs that of the rest of the world combined. Small biotechnology companies, such as the one I lead, play a significant role in innovative drug discovery.

However, we are many years and hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D expense away from having any marketed products. We struggle with the high cost of R&D and low rate of success and rely on private investment groups and large pharmaceutical companies for investment and partnership to survive.

H.R. 3 threatens these sources of R&D funding, in effect limiting patient access to much needed new drugs, permanently damaging a growing and fragile San Diego industry by turning it into a high-risk/low-reward proposition for the investors, and finally weakening our competitiveness in the world.

Mehran F. Moghaddam

OROX Biosciences

San Diego

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