How many dollars is a human life worth? That’s a question that insurance actuaries and business executives have coldly calculated for centuries. It is always disconcerting to accept that businesses must assign value to human health, especially in the biotech field, where leaders must make decisions about which research to pursue and where to allocate resources. Those decisions have real consequences for patients.
BioNJ, a trade group representing the life sciences sector, will host a workshop dedicated to helping make difficult decisions, “Beyond Value Frameworks: Defining the Value of Medical Innovation,” on Friday, December 8, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tickets are $295, $195 for BioNJ members. For more information, visit www.bionj.org.
Panelists include Gary Binder of Celgene Corporation, Robert Goldberg of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, Assemblyman Adam Taliaferro, Kathleen Arnsten of the Lupus and Allied Diseases Association, Marc Boutin of the National Health Council, Jennifer M. Hinkel of McGivney Global Advisors, Tiffany Westrich-Robertson of the International Foundation of Autoimmune Arthritis, Bob Tufts, of My Life is Worth It, Kevin Rigby of KRigby Consulting, Iya Kahil of GNS Healthcare, Dan Leonard of the National Pharmaceutical Council, Peter J. Pitts of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, and Jayne C. Gershkowitz of Amicus Therapeutics.
