BIO supports public health executive order

Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) leaders are expressing support for a recently signed public health order focusing on vaccine technology development, prioritization, and emphasizing vaccination importance.

President Donald Trump announced the executive order in advance of what is expected to be a severe flu season. The Administration has noted ensuring patients have access to safe and effective treatments is of great importance.

“There are few national priorities more important than protecting the American people from the next possible pandemic outbreak,” BIO President and CEO Jim Greenwood said. “The president’s own economic advisers have warned that such an event could cost up to $4 trillion and result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives. And as many Americans experience each year, seasonal influenza poses as a serious and even deadly threat.”

Greenwood said he is pleased to see the Administration take action on the issue, adding BIO shares the commitment to investing in and promoting new technologies to protect both the public’s health and the nation’s security.

The order outlines efforts to improve the speed of vaccine production, which they said would enable experts to match vaccines better to actively circulating viruses – an essential piece of making the vaccines more effective.