House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa recently hosted US Congress Forum in San Diego on impediments to job growth in biotech and pharmaceutical industries.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the chief congressional committee charged with overseeing the federal government, has been conducting a broad examination of how problematic federal regulations have limited opportunities job growth.
Starting in December 2010, Rep. Issa and the Oversight Committee began a formal effort to listen to job creators and job creation experts to solicit their input on regulatory barriers to growing business that would help the economy.
Last week, the committee hosted a forum and heard from job creators in the biomedical and pharmaceutical sector in San Diego.
“We know that the private sector is going to have to lead this nation’s economic recovery effort and it’s important for us to hear what is holding back efforts to create new jobs,” said Rep. Issa.
The committee, according to Rep. Issa, also highlighted its online effort AmericanJobCreators.com, where American job creators can tell Congress about regulatory impediments to job creation.
Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) also participated in a field hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee with the local biotech community.
Davis inquired how the government can better work with the industry to create jobs and what impact proposed federal funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) will have on San Diego.
“Not only does NIH funding go toward life-saving, critical medical research, but it provides high-quality employment to many Americans – thousands of whom are in the San Diego region,” said Davis. “Unfortunately, the NIH can’t support all of the promising new possibilities to treat diseases because of the funding restraints – and I often hear from my constituents that they aren’t able to obtain grants.”
Most of the criticism was directed at the Food and Drug Administration, which approved 21 new drugs last year, compared to 36 in 2004, reported sandiegounion.com.
“There are whole areas (of drug development) that venture capitalists won’t pursue because the regulatory barriers are too high,” said David Gollaher, president and chief executive of the California Healthcare Institute in La Jolla.
