About PhRMA
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) represents the country’s leading innovative biopharmaceutical research companies, which are laser focused on developing innovative medicines that transform lives and create a healthier world. Together, we are fighting for solutions to ensure patients can access and afford medicines that prevent, treat and cure disease. Over the last decade, PhRMA member companies have invested more than $850 billion in the search for new treatments and cures, and they support nearly five million jobs in the United States.
Connect with PhRMA
For information on how innovative medicines save lives, please visit:
www.PhRMA.org
www.VotersforCures.org
www.AmericasMedicines.com
www.Facebook.com/PhRMA
www.X.com/PhRMA
WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 22, 2025) – Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) president and CEO Stephen J. Ubl issued the following statement on today’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission report:
“The administration is right to focus on understanding the root causes of chronic disease in children, including food, environmental toxins and other lifestyle factors. But when people get sick, they should have every option available to them to get better – including medicines. Medicines are part of the solution, not the cause of chronic disease. That’s why our industry wakes up every day focused on developing new treatments to fight and prevent disease.”
The report made several untrue or misleading claims. As you cover the report, please keep in mind:
- “Overmedicalization”: The biopharmaceutical industry believes decisions about childhood medication should always be made with the guidance of doctors and parents’ involvement and as part of a comprehensive treatment plan customized to fit each person's unique needs and condition.
- Vaccine value: Other than clean water, arguably nothing has done more to improve public health than vaccines – which have eliminated dangerous diseases like polio and smallpox in the U.S. It’s essential for public health and U.S. pandemic preparedness that we maintain a policy environment that supports continued advances in vaccines.
- Vaccine clinical trials & safety: Vaccines are held to extremely high safety standards. Because vaccines are given to healthy people starting at birth, they are typically studied for years in large-scale clinical trials involving thousands of volunteers to ensure both safety and effectiveness. FDA approval relies on rigorous randomized, controlled studies with an appropriate comparator – which may be a placebo when no other vaccine is available or approved. When there is an existing vaccine, for ethical reasons, studies are designed to compare a new vaccine to an existing vaccine to avoid exposing participants to unnecessary risks.
- Innovation ecosystem: Americans should be proud of our unique open and transparent innovation ecosystem – where industry, academia and government researchers work together to advance medical science. This is a feature – not a bug – of America’s global biopharmaceutical leadership and should be preserved.