BIOTECH FIRMS PRAISED OVER COSTS

Of the many good proposals for containing health care costs which have been made, the best have come from the biotechnology industry, says Gregory Simon, US Vice President Al Gore's chief domestic policy adviser.

he told the Biotechnology Industry Organization's annual meeting in Toronto, Canada, that the Clinton Administration is "well prepared for the next generation of biotechnology," and it will "fight for and hope to retain" a 4.7% increase in the budget of the national Institutes of Health. Mr Simon added that Vice President Gore is "more conversant and more excited" about the biotechnology industry "than anyone you have ever had in the White House."

- The BIO is backing Senator Edward Kennedy's plan for the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research to be responsible to assessing the costs and impact of drugs and medical technologies, rather than the proposed drug breakthrough council. The BIA board noted the work of Genzyme, which made the AHCPR proposal, and of Mitotix president Alison Taunton-Rigby with Sen Kennedy in getting the alternative plan accepted.