Incubate in PharmaVoice on Why Lawmakers Must Fix the Small Molecule Penalty

Incubate executive director John Stanford was recently featured in a PharmaVoice article by reporter Amy Baxter on proposed reforms to the Inflation Reduction Act, including the EPIC Act.

The EPIC Act would undo a discrepancy in the Inflation Reduction Act that has shifted the investment away from small molecule therapies, despite their enormous scientific potential. In PharmaVoice, Stanford breaks down how the changing political and policy landscape affects the life sciences:"

The most notable thing is Republicans being in control," said John Stanford, executive director of Incubate, a lobbying coalition for venture capitalists that has tracked investments impacts of the IRA. "Republicans understand this and aren't scared, from a political standpoint, to fix this."

...The prices and drugs selected have already deterred small molecule investments and led some biotechs to switch gears on their R&D programs — Incubate reports that 44 research programs and 23 drugs have been discontinued as a result of the IRA.

"The industry, for better or worse, sometimes is accused of crying wolf, and innovation is ending and the sky is falling," Stanford said. "We have chronicled deals, earnings calls, SEC filings, where a company has said, 'I am shutting down this small molecule because of the IRA.'"

...Plus, the first round only impacted one product for most pharmas. But as more drugs are added to the program, more portfolios could take larger financial hits, said Stanford.

"On one product at a massive manufacturer, you can manage the impact. Absolutely," Stanford said. "The first set of drugs being picked had the benefit of being pretty old drugs that were basically losing exclusivity anyway, and many of them had actually already seen competition drive down the cost."