We Work for Health – and so do many others

by Scott Smith, GSK Business Coalitions & Advocacy
May 28, 2014 4:00 PM ET

It was a packed house this morning at GSK’s facility at The Navy Yard in Philadelphia, where we hosted a We Work for Health PA event with distinguished guests including U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA). 

Together with the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of CommercePennsylvania Bio, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry,Pennsylvania We Work For Health, and the Pharmaceutical Industry Labor Management Association, we brought together about 75 business leaders, policy makers and non-profit leaders to discuss the sector's economic impact and opportunities for growth. 

Guests and GSK employees heard remarks from Jack Bailey, our SVP of policy, payers, and vaccines, and Senator Toomey. “My job is to be a champion for the life sciences,” said Senator Toomey who talked about all the exciting work happening in our industry in Pennsylvania. Chris Molineaux, President and CEO of Pennsylvania Bio, facilitated a panel discussion about the importance of the industry to its suppliers. Highlights of the summit can be viewed here.  

To understand the economic impact of our industry, consider this: every job within the biopharmaceutical industry is responsible for adding four additional jobs in the US. In Pennsylvania, about 212,000 jobs are directly and indirectly linked to the biopharmaceutical industry.

The summit focused on how we can help encourage public policies that strengthen our industry and support those that we work with to ensure we can continue to develop, manufacture and deliver medical innovation to patients in Pennsylvania, the US, and around the world.