Joint Committee on Public Health Hearing on Senate Bill 1239 An Act Requiring Licensure of Health Care Representatives and Gift Ban, Testimony of Christopher Anderson

Thank you, Chairwoman Fargo and Chairman Koutoujian for the opportunity to submit testimony on issues of importance to the state’s life sciences employers.

The Massachusetts High Technology Council was formed in 1977 by high tech CEOs whose mission was to help make Massachusetts the most competitive state in which to create, operate, and expand high tech businesses.  That remains our mission today.  Council members employ hundreds of thousands of skilled workers in all of Massachusetts’s key technology sectors, including computer hardware, life sciences, software, medical products, defense technology, semiconductor, and telecommunications.  Our board includes the executive leadership of tech employers such as Biogen, Boston Scientific, Dynamics Research, EMC, Genzyme, Teradyne and Wyeth.

The state’s biopharmaceutical industry is a significant economic driver and a current and potential employer for Massachusetts.  The promise for the state’s life sciences economy is found in small biotech companies as well as large, international biopharmaceutical employers.

Massachusetts boasts a “Who’s Who” of global pharmaceutical leaders that in recent years have decided to invest in Massachusetts: Merck, Pfizer, Astra-Zeneca and dozens of others have established research facilities here. Why?  Because Massachusetts possesses the world’s premier life sciences research & development cluster, and these companies understand that to be competitive they must have a presence here.

There has been much lauding of the recent gains in the biopharmaceutical sector during the past year.  Massachusetts is the new home to a $1 Billion Bristol Myers Squibb manufacturing facility and Astra Zeneca is currently expanding its Waltham campus adding hundreds of new jobs. 

These recent victories are a result of Massachusetts breaking with its tradition of being a bureaucratic morass, streamlining permitting and moving toward a less arbitrary corporate tax structure.  We need to continue forward momentum for the economic development gains we are currently seeing and for that reason The Massachusetts High Technology Council strongly opposes Senate Bill #1239 An Act Requiring Licensure of Health Care Representatives and Gift Ban. 

The institution of a licensing fee on pharmaceutical representatives is simply reversing course.     When you look at a vast majority of the bills before the Committee today, it’s crucial to ask the right questions: Are the proposed regulations more or less likely to encourage companies to bring new research jobs to Massachusetts?  Will the additional fees and punitive measures make Massachusetts more competitive so life sciences manufacturers decide to expand their facilities in Massachusetts, rather than North Carolina? 

The Legislature has done a good job of highlighting the need for streamlined permitting and investment in technology facilities.  We have seen real progress in permitting reform and are optimistic that the legislature will see fit to expand the pool of resources available to pursue large scale federal research projects which will help expand the state’s research & development base.  However, several of the bills being heard today would undermine the state’s efforts to attract and retain life sciences employers – and the jobs that are so critical to our state’s future.

Earlier this year The Mass High Tech Council released A Critical Alliance: The Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries in Massachusetts.  The study, prepared by the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts, dis