Biotech’s annual confab is here. Here’s what you should watch

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization is holding its first all-digital summit this year. It’ll be the first true test of whether the organization’s new CEO Michelle McMurry-Heath, a self-proclaimed social justice advocate, will change the tenor of the organization, which often gets characterized as a mouthpiece for “Big Pharma.” On that point, we at STAT will be eagerly awaiting Thursday, when McMurry-Heath will moderate a first-of-its kind panel with black biotech CEOs about their unique perspective on the industry.

The first day of the summit yielded some interesting news, including that BIO’s departing CEO, the former Republican congressman Jim Greenwood, plans to “change the politics of climate change so no climate denier will ever be elected to Congress.” Quite a statement from a GOP lawmaker, former or not.

Some biotech CEOs also seemed less than thrilled about the lack of attention they’re getting from the FDA on non-Covid-19 matters. “It’s a zero sum game. The FDA itself is making choices,” said Regeneron founder and chief scientific officer George Yancopoulos during a Monday panel. “They’re also telling us that other programs that they don’t consider essential — even though they may be dealing with lung cancer — that they can’t be dealing with [other] things with the timelines and urgency that they might have otherwise been able to deal with them.”

Here’s a few other things to watch at BIO in the coming days:

On Tuesday BIO will assemble some of the world’s leading vaccine experts to discuss a Covid-19 vaccine, including Tony Fauci, former FDA commissioners Mark McClellan and Peggy Hamburg, FDA’s current vaccine expert Peter Marks, officials from Sanofi, Moderna, Novavax, Merck, and Johnson & Johnson, and the heads of the vaccine groups CEPI and Gavi. (Why not invite the ghosts of Jonas Salk and Louis Pasteur, too, BIO?)

FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn is also on tap for a “fireside chat” on Wednesday.

Oh, and don’t miss the morning workout classes from Solidcore. It’s not quite last year’s mini-golf course, but it’ll do….

Want the latest updates on everything happening at BIO, my colleague Kate Sheridan has you covered. Sign up for her pop-up newsletter, BIO in 30, here.