BIO Statement on President Obama's "Precision Medicine Initiative"

Washington, DC – January 30, 2015 – Today, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) releases the following statement on President Obama’s “Precision Medicine Initiative”.

The following can be attributed to Jim Greenwood, BIO’s President and CEO, who attended today’s conference at the White House:

“We applaud President Obama’s announcement of a new “Precision Medicine Initiative” intended to better embrace the potential of precision medicine, which would advance a new approach to healthcare by tailoring therapies for patients to maximize clinical benefit while reducing the risk of side effects.

“Precision medicine holds great promise for many health care interventions to occur much earlier and with increased accuracy. We are pleased that the Precision Medicine initiative and the Chronic Disease Initiative longitudinal study proposed by BIO hold promise of working very well together.

“We look forward to working with the Administration and the National Institutes of Health – in addition to the Congress – to develop public policies that will support the implementation of precision medicine.

“Together, we are embarking on a new era that will transform health care through the use of next generation modern medicines and diagnostics that promise to save lives and reduce and eliminate suffering.”

For more information on BIO and the biotechnology industry, please visit www.bio.org.