Originally Published MX September/October 2004
EDITOR'S PAGE
Politics and Policy
Issues specific to the medical technology community don't often rise to the level of national debate. But in an election year, anything is possible.
For the leaders of medical technology companies, there seems to be no end to the number of issues that require the attention of elected leaders and policymakers. From the moment that a company begins to develop a new product, for instance, it falls subject to all the requirements and nuances related to intellectual property protection—including measures to prevent international piracy and counterfeiting. And somewhere, no doubt, there is a medical device company that yearns to revise the laws in this area in order to redress some injustice that has befallen it.
Such issues arise in almost every area of a company's operations. In business matters, company executives must be concerned with statutes and regulations for corporate governance, accounting practices, contracts and grants, employee relations, and much more. In product development and approval, companies must deal with the well-known requirements of FDA and other regulatory bodies overseas. In advertising and marketing, companies must comply with FDA rules as well as those of the Federal Trade Commission.
It is questionable how much elected officials know—or should know—about the ways that such issues affect medical device companies. Industry-specific difficulties in these areas are typically managed at the level of regulatory policy and rarely rise to a level requiring legislative action.
Nevertheless, it is good to know that industry associations—and, increasingly, individual medtech companies—are working to make sure that elected officials and regulators are informed about industry views on key issues. In this issue's roundtable, "Influencing Public Policy", MX talks with representatives of several companies that now maintain a permanent office in Washington, DC.
The efforts of such industry representatives may not be apparent in this year's election debates. But they should help to ensure that future policies benefit from the more-detailed understanding of those who lead medtech companies.
Copyright ©2004 MX
