30 July 2019 - When I was 13 years old, my doctor told me I had Crohn’s disease, a painful gastrointestinal condition that swells the intestines and threatens the digestive tract. 

Breakthrough treatments like Remicade, Enbrel, and Humira were still decades away, so the diagnosis cost me my colon.

My surgeries and the lifelong challenges — and triumphs — that came with them inform my vantage point in the simmering drug pricing debate. I believe in the social contract that drug companies, mine included, have a duty to responsibly set list prices so patients can access needed medicines. And I think it’s time for industry leaders to exert more pressure on colleagues who violate that contract.

I also believe in a strong patent system to protect investment, not just in medical innovation but also in equally strong generic and biosimilar competition when intellectual property rights expire, making medicines more affordable.

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