Well, if they feel that way, they're wrong. Already, health- care reform is having a damaging impact on the scientific work force--and the implications for the future are even more threatening.
The CEOs of two small biotech firms and I recently met with the editorial board of the Baltimore Sun. During the meeting, one of the executives explained that, like 99 percent of United States biotechnology companies, his enterprise had no products yet on the market. Without earning revenues from sales, and certainly without profits, his company relies on private venture capital and potential stock offerings to finance its research. Uncertainty about price-control provisions in various health-care reform proposals--including President Clinton's--have driven investors away in droves.
Their reasoning? "The science is tough enough," they say, "and then you have to get through years of clinical trials and FDA approval. Now you're telling us there's going to be some faceless government ...
