What — If Any — "Silver Linings" Have You Observed Take Place At Your Company Resulting From The Chaos Caused By COVID-19?

A | I HAVE BEEN AMAZED AT HOW BIO’S MEMBER COMPANIES HAVE SO QUICKLY COME TOGETHER to accelerate R&D and manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics — often allowing their own commercial interests to take a back seat to the public good, even where that means helping a competitor. But more broadly, BIO has been bringing our company CEOs together (virtually) on a regular basis to share how COVID-19 is changing how they have to conduct their clinical trials, run their labs, and keep their businesses afloat. COVID-19 also is changing how they engage with regulators on COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 programs, in positive ways that we hope to capture and build upon post-pandemic to continue modernization of drug development and regulatory review.

TOM DILENGE is president of the Advocacy, Law & Public Policy Division for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).