April 3, 2024

As we are in the midst of budget season in New Jersey, the Legislature has been largely focused on budget hearings with reports and testimony from various departments. While the State’s budget will be the primary focus of the Legislature, there will be a few opportunities for additional committees to meet until it breaks for the summer.

On March 29, U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi granted a preliminary injunction pursued by Rep. Andy Kim (NJ-3), joined by several other candidates running for Congress, to eliminate the ballot line ahead of the primary election in June. The “county line” is a unique feature of New Jersey’s ballot design that has been characterized as generating an electoral advantage to candidates who are able to secure the line. Rep. Kim, who is running for the Senate seat currently occupied by Senator Menendez, initiated this suit in February and was joined by several additional primary candidates earlier in the primary campaign for the Democratic Party candidate for the seat.

As a result of this ruling, this primary election would use office block ballots, placing candidates together according to the office for which they are campaigning. However, this ruling — with an appeal now headed to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals —applies only to Democrats, enabling the Republican Party to continue using them for the party’s primary.

For coverage of this ruling in the New Jersey Globe, click here.

For coverage of the appeal to the Third Circuit, click here.

For coverage of this ruling in POLITICO, click here.

A letter organized by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) addressed to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, articulates concerns regarding a proposed change to the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. The letter focuses on a proposed change to the rule’s definition of “best price”, changing it from the lowest or “best” price available to any entity in the drug chain — whether wholesaler, insurer, nonprofit or government entity — to instead requiring companies “stack” discounts or rebates provided to the various entities who encounter the drug unit across the supply chain.

As a result of this proposed change, investment into innovation that is R&D intensive may be diminished, and certain hospitals that tend to care for lower-income populations in some states may confront substantial financial losses.

Small and mid-sized biotech companies are invited to sign on to this letter by April 8. Please contact Ian McLaughlin, VP of Government Affairs, with interest in signing on: IMcLaughlin@BioNJ.org.

On March 25, the New Jersey Business Coalition sent a letter with over 100 signatories to urge all of the members of the New Jersey Legislature to oppose a new tax on businesses in the proposed FY2025 budget. The tax, which would be 2.5% on corporations with over $10 million in earnings, would return New Jersey to the status of being home to the highest corporate business tax (CBT) rate in the country…and the only state with a double-digit CBT rate.

To read the letter, click here.

To read comments by New Jersey Business & Industry Association, click here.

The first-in-nation entity, which includes a cabinet-level appointment, was announced on March 27, with Lisa Asare being named President and Chief Executive Officer. Ms. Asare previously served as Assistant Commissioner of the Division of Family Health Services at the New Jersey Department of Health (DOH), and more recently as Deputy Commissioner of Health Services at the DOH. Ms. Asare co-authored the State’s Strategic Plan, which set the framework in confronting challenges associated with maternal and infant health.

For a statement from the Governor and First Lady, click here.

The NJ AI Summit, hosted by Princeton University in partnership with Governor Murphy and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, will be held on Princeton’s campus on April 11. While this is an invitation-only event, recordings will be made available following its conclusion.

For more information on the Summit and agenda, click here.

As Patients in New Jersey continue to face barriers to access their medications, organizations like the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) continue to rely on discriminatory metrics to assign value to prescription medicines. The Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) methodology is subjective and threatens to discriminate against Patients who may never achieve what the QALY considers to be a perfect quality of life.

There are several opportunities for Patients to contribute to ICER’s value assessment process and speak up in support of treatment access. The more Patient voices that engage in the process, the more information ICER has to support an informed decision-making process and learn more about what matters most to Patients. BioNJ has developed an educational guide to empower Patients to share perspectives on treatment value and the Patient experience with ICER.



Click here to share this important tool with the Patient Advocacy Organizations which you engage with.

The study, published by the Alliance for 340B Integrity & Reform (AIR340B) at the end of March, finds that, in 18 states and Washington, D.C., every disproportionate share hospital earns more in profits derived from the 340B program than it spends on charity care based on figures from 2022. The study demonstrates that, while 340B discounts are intended to be passed on to Patients to reduce out-of-pocket costs or charity care at significantly diminished cost, these hospitals are largely using profits yielded by the 340B program for unrelated purposes, such as payroll, equipment and general operating costs.

To read the full study, click here.

This webinar, entitled American Innovation in Peril: Misuse of the Bayh-Dole Act and Section 1498 Could Be a Knockout Punch and provided by the Bayh-Dole Coalition, will include experts in intellectual property and the Bayh-Dole Act and is being provided online.

For more information on the webinar, speakers, and registration, click here.

The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) report, entitled "Not Again: Why the United States Can’t Afford to Lose Its Biopharma Industry", speaks to the critical contributions that the U.S. life sciences ecosystem makes to the emergence of new treatments and cures, with 74% of new molecular entities approved worldwide being first approved in the U.S. between 2015-2021.

Further, the report notes, “In the pharmaceutical industry, which is capital and technology-intensive, organizing production under a market structure involving many small producers transacting with each other may not be economically rational. This is because the necessary R&D efforts, investments and technology required to develop new drugs are highly specific and would lead to excessively high transaction costs.” In addition, the report notes that a more concentrated market structure would be more efficient than the alternative and enables the development of new drugs that would have been unviable to develop due to prohibitive transaction costs.

To read the report, click here.

BioNJ is the voice of New Jersey’s life sciences sector in Trenton and Washington. BioNJ’s Public Policy Support Series sponsorship opportunities are now available for 2024. Help ensure BioNJ continues to deliver our message of improved Patient access and enhanced innovation through a Public Policy Support Series Sponsorship.  

Click here for more information.

BioNJ | www.BioNJ.org