Biotech Firms and Electoral Politics

Not all biotech ethics stories are about biotech.

From the Denver Post: Biotech ad draws fire from Colorado lawmaker

A newspaper advertisement that commends Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter for pushing biotech industries rankled a Republican lawmaker who says he thinks the piece should have been labeled a campaign ad.

"This is just a big, wet kiss for Bill Ritter," said Sen. Shawn Mitchell of Broomfield.

He asked an ethics group to investigate whether the ad violated campaign finance laws.The group's director later said no violation occurred....

This is a good example of why it's a bad idea for biotech companies and industry associations to think only about bioethics.

(Another note: the story quotes Ken Johnson of PhRMA as saying that he's promoting biotech because we're not going to cure cancer with "$4 generic drugs." We're certainly not going to do so with the generic drugs currently available...but not at all clear that cheap generics won't ever play an important role. Plus it seems politically unwise, shall we say, to be mocking affordable healthcare products.)