TWC Session 6

In TWC session 6, the topic of discussion was the BioBusiness Revolution: Healthcare and the Biomedical Sciences.  Prof spoke about the relation between healthcare spending of a country in relation to World Ranking in Healthcare, Obesity pandemic, BioBusiness Landscape and finally, Healthcare Revolution.

An interesting point about Healthcare Revolution is the increase of participation of the private sector in the healthcare industry. The driver of this change, I feel, is due to the incentive of revenue that can be generated from the patent rights. However, there need to be a balance between healthcare costs versus innovation. In most countries, it is evident that only the rich has access to healthcare as they have the monetary resources. The aim of healthcare is to provide access to everyone, regardless of rich or poor. Ways to do this are reducing patents, putting a price ceiling on drugs like in France and other ways that lead to less revenue of companies.  This will act as a discouraging factor for companies to innovate new drugs. There have been ongoing debates to find the perfect “balance” in the two areas.  It will be interesting in the upcoming years on the outcome of this.

During the discussion, prof displayed a slide regarding the top 5 US Biotech firms and their annual revenue. On a more personal experience, I had the opportunity to do Public Relations for one the firms, Genzyme. I did an internship with a PR firm and did the promotion of 2 of the products/ medical innovation to the public. One of the products that I helped promote was Synvic, a gel that is inserted to temporary “replace” the ligament of kneecaps when it has been worn out. I realize then that the technology had advanced to an extend that this procedure does not even need an operation, just an injection every 5 years to prevent the pains caused by the wearing of kneecaps! What’s more, the cost of the injection is only about $250. From this example, it can be observed that there has been rapid innovation in the biotech industry.

The aim of Healthcare is to strike the best balance between innovation and healthcare costs.

An issue for further discussion for the session can be about the animal and human testing? Whether it is morally right for the greater good of society.

I rate this session 8/10!