At the STAT Summit in Boston, Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) advised fellow lawmakers to stop treating China as the main problem in biotech and instead focus on making the United States a faster, more attractive place for research. "Washington needs to fix itself and worry less about what China is doing because China is going to be excellent," he said. "But we can be even better."
Auchincloss plans to introduce a bill modeled on Australia's approach to clinical trials, which allows early-phase trials to skip pre-approval evaluation by the national regulator. He acknowledged that U.S. early-stage trials will never be as cheap as China's, but argued they should be just as fast. He also said he wants to address pharmacy benefit manager practices, reform the 340B hospital drug discount program, and create small business grants.
He was sharply critical of the FDA's National Priority Voucher program, saying it politicizes decisions that should follow transparent standards. He cited the awarding of vouchers to psychedelics after podcaster Joe Rogan texted President Trump about ibogaine research. "If Washington behaves that way, there's nothing that we're going to do about Beijing that's going to save our biomedical leadership," Auchincloss said.
His broader message to Massachusetts lawmakers was to unapologetically support the biotech industry, which is central to the state's economy. "You do need a villain, and the villain is the insurance company," he said, adding that White House OMB Director Russ Vought also sees science as a "blue state subsidy." The source is a single STAT article, so no comparison across sources is possible.