GEN online readers are about evenly split on how helpful the administration of President Barack Obama had been to the biopharma industry during 2011. While a clear plurality (46.4%) said the administration was of “not much” help to biopharma, equal portions of respondents (25% each) agreed Obama was “very” or “somewhat” helpful, with 3.6% undecided. Obama and his administration can be expected to express fervent support for the biopharma industry and point to several accomplishments to that effect this re-election year. Obama enacted patent reform sought by industry groups through the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, and pressed ahead with NIH endorsement of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines; as of December 22, 2011, NIH had approved 142 hESC lines. But a federal court will decide this year whether federal funding of hESC research can take place. And Obama also failed to persuade Congress to reduce from 12 to 7 years the data-exclusivity period for originators of biologic therapeutics.
