BIO Congratulates President-Elect Obama on His Presidential Election Victory
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Wednesday, November 05, 2008) - The following statement was issued today by Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) President and CEO Jim Greenwood following yesterday’s historic U.S. elections:
“On behalf of the more than 1,200 members of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, I offer our congratulations to Senator Barack Obama on his election victory. We also offer our congratulations to the newly elected and returning members of Congress, governors and other elected officials across the United States.
“From health care to energy to climate change to environmental sustainability, President-elect Obama will enter office facing a daunting array of complex challenges threatening the well-being of our nation and the environmental health of our planet.
“Biotechnology is uniquely suited to help provide answers to these challenges. Biotechnology provides hope for millions of people suffering from debilitating diseases like cancer, H.I.V.-AIDS, Parkinson’s and diabetes. By reducing the incidence of disease, we can dramatically reduce health care costs and help spur economic growth. Biotechnology provides the key to sustainable, renewable alternative fuels that increase our nation’s energy security. And we develop crops that produce more food per acre while requiring less plowing, reducing fuel use, carbon dioxide emissions, and overall environmental impact.
“Biotechnology is one of the most promising sectors of America’s burgeoning innovation economy. To continue our nation’s global leadership in innovation and continue to fulfill the promise of biotechnology, we will work with President-elect Obama and the new Congress to ensure that we have the proper public policies that promote and facilitate continued innovation.
“We must maintain strong protections for intellectual property – the key to an innovation economy – while enhancing patent quality and the objectivity, predictability, and transparency of the patent system. We must increase resources for the federal Food and Drug Administration to enable the agency to keep pace with rapidly evolving biomedical science and make sound regulatory decisions in a timely and efficient manner. We must provide the tax and investment incentives that promote continued biotech innovation and help accelerate the commercialization of advanced biofuels technologies. And we must ensure the National Institutes of Health have the funding needed to sustain the public-private collaboration that is transforming biomedical discoveries into innovative treatments for patients. At the same time, we need the proper policies and incentives at the state and local level to help grow and nurture biotechnology research and product development to ensure America remains the world leader in biotechnology innovation.
“We look forward to working with President-elect Obama, the new Congress and public officials at all levels of government to achieve these goals and continue to build our nation’s innovation economy. Together, we can implement the public policies necessary to help heal, fuel, feed and clean our nation.”
Upcoming BIO Events
Advanced Business Development Course
November 14-16, 2008
Mannheim/Heidelberg, Germany
BIO-Europe 2008
November 17-19, 2008
Mannheim/Heidelberg, Germany
BIO-Asia Partnering Conference 2009
January 19-20, 2009
Tokyo, Japan
BIO CEO & Investor Conference 2009
February 9-11, 2009
New York, New York
BIO-Europe Spring
March 16-18, 2009
Milan, Italy
BIO Windhover 2009
April 13-15, 2009
New York, New York
2009 BIO International Convention
May 18-21, 2009
Atlanta, Ga.
BioEquity Europe
June 9-10, 2009
Munich, Germany
World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology & Bioprocessing
July 19-22, 2009
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
About BIO
BIO represents more than 1,200 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the BIO International Convention, the world’s largest gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around the world.
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