STAT+: At Stanford conference, typically guarded biotech leaders share their concerns about Trump policies

PALO ALTO, Calif. — At an annual meeting usually focused on the industry’s future, life science leaders couldn’t help but grapple — 100 days into President Trump’s second term — with a present clouded by uncertainty.

At Stanford’s Drug Discovery Symposium, biotech bigwigs spoke openly this week about how the scientific ecosystem that trains the industry’s workforce and produces many of the discoveries companies later turn into new drugs and diagnostics is now in jeopardy. And investors said the administration’s shifting funding priorities and layoffs at the Food and Drug Administration are already impacting what areas they’re willing to fund and where portfolio companies run clinical trials.

“Some of the fundamental, foundational elements on which this industry was so successful look more uncertain now than in my 40 years in the industry,” said Robert Bradway, chairman and CEO of Amgen, pointing both to the current administration and market trends and shifts in drug pricing policy that preceded Trump.

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