A Brief Response to Bill Gates’s NYT Op-Ed

By: David Sanders, Coherus BioSciences

Re: “Bill Gates: How to Develop Life-Saving Drugs Much Faster” (Opinion Guest Essay, April 15):

Mr. Gates does a fine job arguing for an accelerated process for next level Covid-19 therapies but he misses on two essential pieces of the puzzle.  Firstly, the way to advance the best technologies across the finish line is to empower and respect innovation and to do so through an Operation Warp Speed for Therapies.  Secondly, how many lives have been lost because of supply chain shortages? We need to address the supply chain woes facing our country.

While Congress has put forward some policy changes, we need more bold action from agencies aiming to secure our country’s medicine cabinet. The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is one of those agencies — and it needs funding – now — to carry out this mission. 

BARDA has supported advancement of 62 medical products. The next generation of therapeutics should be developed with the help of the government — with an emphasis on American made. The American people showed resilience during the pandemic. Let’s work across the aisle to ensure the “next pandemic” never happens.