The closing speaker at least week’s PhRMA annual meeting (aka, the “Pharmitzvah”) was Renaissance Man Fareed Zakaria. He gave a wonderful view of the current global economic and political landscape and was in equal parts equally euphoric about the potential and brutally honest about the challenges. Most interesting were his views on the changing nature and role of the nation state.
His was the only presentation that permitted audience participation and I was fortunate enough to ask the first question, “What is the role of the 21st century nation state when it comes to the future of healthcare?”
His answer was as dynamic as it was simple, “The x factor is innovation.”
Specifically, he believes that for a nation to be a global healthcare leader, said nation must invest its national treasure in innovation. He chose as exemplars Singapore, China, India and South Korea. The percentage of public wealth invested by the United States doesn’t even begin to match up with that fearsome foursome. Zakaria also pointed out that the difference between research facilities in Beijing and Cambridge isn’t quality … it’s cost.
In other words, not only are other nations investing more – they’re getting more bang for the investment yuan. All this at the same moment that President Obama disrespects pharmaceutical innovation by suggesting that we reduce the patent life of biologics from twelve years to seven.
In his closing remarks, PhRMA Chairman Chris Viehbacher summed it up nicely, “The question isn’t will our companies be successful? It’s will they continue to be successful in the United States?”
To be or not to be, that is the question.
It certainly puts the slings and arrows into perspective.
