BIO Deutschland’s chairman attends meeting of the International Council of Biotech Associations

The International Council of Biotech Associations (ICBA) convened in Boston on 4 June, the day before the BIO International Convention officially kicked off. Oliver Schacht, Chairman of the Board of BIO Deutschland, also serves as Chair of this coalition of 30 non-profit, national biotechnology trade associations. He co-chaired the meeting alongside Claire Skentelbery, Director General of European umbrella association for biotechnology EuropaBio and Vice-Chair of the ICBA. The agenda included updates on the annual delegation trip to Geneva and the work programme for the coming year, such as the Pandemic Preparedness Accord, the expansion of the TRIPS Waiver to diagnostics and therapeutics, and the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on the reimbursement of therapeutics in the United States and on future investments in R&D.

Diane Shader Smith, publicist and cystic fibrosis (CF) advocate, shared the story of how her daughter battled with CF and died from an infection with multidrug-resistant bacteria shortly after a lung transplant. She asked for support for a concerted PR/social media campaign in September that aims to raise awareness of the threat of multidrug-resistant germs.

Attending the meeting were trade association representatives from Austria, Canada, Costa Rica, France, Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States.