Ginkgo CEO controversial pick for biotech committee

Ginkgo Bioworks CEO Jason Kelly has been tapped to chair a new congressional commission that will advise the U.S. government on creating policies meant to keep the biotech industry competitive and secure. But some ethics experts are concerned that Kelly's got too many conflicts of interest.

The commission is meant to be an independent advisory group, but Kelly will maintain his position and his 6% stake in Ginkgo, which is currently worth more than $100 million. Most of the other members of the 12-person commission are academic and government scientists, but the group also includes former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Alexander Titus, who is an exec at gene-editing company Colossal. The worry is that companies' business interests could potentially take priority over issues of national security.

"This statute says 'independent commission," one ethics lawyer said. "This is not an independent commission."

podcast

Is the pharmaceutical lobby on the ropes?

What does it mean when a vaccine is "free"? And does biotech prepare you for the presidency? We cover all that and more this week on "The Readout LOUD," STAT's biotech podcast.

Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis and the new chairman of PhRMA, joins us to discuss the industry's struggles in Washington and whether the deflated biotech sector is still overvalued. We also dive into the latest news in the life sciences, including Moderna's promise of no-cost Covid-19 vaccines and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy's potential run for president.

Listen here.

Policy battles

Small molecules versus biologics?

Last year's Inflation Reduction Act finally codified the plan for Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, royally upsetting the biopharma industry. Among their arguments is that the reforms give advantage to biologics over small-molecule drugs — which they say will stymie innovation, increase costs, and harm the people who need these medicines.

This is a misleading claim, opines David Mitchell, a cancer patient who founded the nonprofit Patients for Affordable Drugs Now. "People like me need both types of drugs today and will continue to need them in the future, and the new drug price law is structured to make sure both will be developed and both will continue to be profitable for drug makers," he writes.

Money in medicine

Kickbacks in Medtronic whistleblower case

Kickbacks are unfortunately rampant across the health care industry, but they're particularly pronounced in med tech. This is apparent in a new story from ProPublica on the alleged kickback scheme between medical device company Medtronic and employees at a VA hospital in Kansas. An ongoing whistleblower suit, filed in 2017, argues that Medtronic sales reps encouraged physicians to use devices like stents and drug-coated balloons in exchange for steakhouse dinners, Apple electronics, and NASCAR tickets. Internal investigators at the hospital also uncovered problems such as one doctor who used 33 devices in a single patient, which is not considered safe.

"It is unconscionable — there can be no valid medically acceptable basis to cram so many devices into a human being," attorneys representing the whistleblower wrote in January 2023 legal filings. "This is not medical treatment. This is abuse."

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