Tommy Thompson wants to safeguard innovation and competition in the health care system.
Topic: Tommy Thompson on Innovating the Health Care Industry
Tommy Thompson: You can't develop a perfect system. Somebody's going to fall through the crack, but they fall through the cracks in Europe and Canada, I mean. But what I'm just saying is I like our system of innovation, I like to fight. Who map the human genome? We did, in America. Who's the one that discovered, you know, all the vast majority of new drugs in the last five years that are still helpful to curing illnesses? Americans, American research labs and American companies, and a lot of the research companies are coming to America because we do have a cost structure that allows a company to recoup their investment of their research, a cost to take a drug from the laboratory to bedside. And this is very important, and I don't think you will find that kind of support in a European system and that's why I think it's so important for us to keep our own competitive system like we have.
Recorded On: 10/30/08
Topic: Tommy Thompson on Innovating the Health Care Industry
Tommy Thompson: You can't develop a perfect system. Somebody's going to fall through the crack, but they fall through the cracks in Europe and Canada, I mean. But what I'm just saying is I like our system of innovation, I like to fight. Who map the human genome? We did, in America. Who's the one that discovered, you know, all the vast majority of new drugs in the last five years that are still helpful to curing illnesses? Americans, American research labs and American companies, and a lot of the research companies are coming to America because we do have a cost structure that allows a company to recoup their investment of their research, a cost to take a drug from the laboratory to bedside. And this is very important, and I don't think you will find that kind of support in a European system and that's why I think it's so important for us to keep our own competitive system like we have.
Recorded On: 10/30/08
