Mass. gift ban may have detrimental effect on $1 billion biotech effort

BOSTON The Massachusetts government is trying to lure more biotech business by signing a Life Sciences bill that would add $1 billion over 10 years to aid in research and development efforts, according to the Associated Press.

The problem, however, for the biotech companies is another bill that the state is working to get passed. This bill would ban gifts of any kind from pharmaceuticals manufacturers to doctors, their family members or their employees. The biotech companies are arguing that, “Strictly interpreted, the ‘anything-of-value’ ban could bring clinical trials to a halt in Massachusetts, severely cut into necessary and mandated continuing educational studies undertaken by physicians and mean that fewer new medicines are readily available to patients in the state that is the global hub of medical innovation,” the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council wrote in a May 1 letter to state legislators.

Government officials retaliated by stating that the gift-ban provision would not harm medical research but would help drive out what is essentially bribery. The officials don’t want doctors’ names to end up on clinical reports where they have absolutely no knowledge of what the report is even about. They also claim that the gifts help drive up health care costs by overusing pricy medicines.