The State of the Union and AdvaMed Response

In last night's State of the Union Address, President Obama implores Congress not to “gut” investments in research, so American can maintain its spot as a world leader in medical innovation.

Stephen J. Ubl, president and CEO of the Advanced Medical Technology association (AdvaMed), released the following statement in response to the State of the Union address:

“The President is right to emphasize manufacturing, and medical technology companies support his efforts to boost manufacturing growth, especially through increased exports and lower trade barriers. Consistent with this emphasis on manufacturing, we urge President Obama to support repeal of the medical device tax, which is already causing layoffs and will make our tax system even more uncompetitive. Congress should repeal the tax this year."

So to bring the State of Medtech together, we absolutely need medical device innovation that will result in better patient care and improved cost efficiencies, but to do this we need a clear path through the review and approval process at the FDA in addition to the repeal of the excise tax to improve the predictibility of whether or not an innovation can be commercialized.