Boosting your Life Science Business with Biden Bucks – Insights on the Extraordinary Opportunities from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act

Date: Tuesday, June 22, 2021
Time: 5:00-6:00pm PST
Location: Virtual – Please look out for a follow-up email regarding Zoom instructions.

We invite you to join in an interactive discussion with King & Spalding LLP Partner Liz Lindquist and Senior Government Relations Advisor Allison Kassir to learn about how President Biden’s priorities present a wide range of opportunities for Life Sciences companies.

These include engaging with the administration, helping shape mutually beneficial policies, and securing federal funding for the development, manufacture, and procurement of products. This discussion will be moderated by David Seftel, MD and HBS MBA.

Registration Closes on Monday, June 21, 2021 Pacific Time. Webinar Zoom instructions will be emailed to the attendee list on the morning of Tuesday, June 22nd.

**About the Event:**

The Life Sciences industry was front and center in many significant legal and regulatory developments at the end of the Trump Administration—from the race to develop and authorize COVID-19 therapeutics and devices and related supply chain woes, to significant opioid settlements and battles over drug prices. The Biden Administration’s focus on the Life Sciences industry remains high, as evidenced by several notable policy actions and initiatives announced and/or implemented in the first half of 2021, including:

– The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 economic stimulus bill passed in March, which includes provisions for purchasing finished products, augmenting private industry manufacturing capabilities, and the development of new vaccines and therapeutics to address emerging COVID-19 variants;

– The Biden Administration’s signaled intent to build a more stable, secure, and resilient supply chain for Life Sciences products and decrease the United States’ reliance on items and materials made or sourced in foreign countries—these so-called “Buy American” initiatives include the prioritization of federal procurement contracts with domestic manufacturers and investments and incentives to on-shore and expand the manufacturing capacity of American companies; and

– President Biden’s recently released Fiscal Year 2022 Budget, which includes a $6.5 billion request to launch an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health tasked with developing a new generation of medical breakthroughs to help prevent, detect, and treat diseases like cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s.

President Biden’s priorities present a wide range of opportunities for Life Sciences companies.

**About the Speakers**


**Liz F. Lindguist – Partner, King & Spalding**

Liz counsels life sciences companies on a broad range of federal procurement and contracting matters, including contract negotiation and grant bid negotiation, submission, and compliance, country-of-origin compliance, novation and assignment of claims, clinical research issues and enforcement issues. She developed a broad network of contacts at key federal agencies and offices, including but not limited to FEMA, BARDA, the White House, and HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, as well as parallel contacts at the state level. Liz has significant experience advising pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturers on their rights and obligations under federal healthcare programs, regulatory, enforcement, and litigation matters related to government price calculation and reporting practices, and state laws impacting life sciences companies.


**Allison F. Kassir – Government Relations Advisor, King & Spalding**

Allison is a government relations advisor with a legislative practice that includes advising clients on healthcare and other issues. She develops and implements Legislative and Executive Branch strategies on behalf of biotechnology and medical device companies, patient advocacy groups, hospital clients, and professional medical organizations. She has extensive experience in translating complex health policy issues for a wide audience of policymakers and has over two decades of experience working as an integral member of the firm’s Congressional Investigations practice to represent clients before House and Senate Committees, as well as the Government Accountability Office. She served in a variety of positions on Capitol Hill, advising members of Congress, and serving as part of a Committee Member Services team, and has also served as a special assistant to the Secretary of Defense.

**About the Moderator**


**David Seftel, MDDavid Seftel, M.D.**

David Seftel, M.D., M.B.A. is CEO and Chief Medical Officer of Enable Biosciences, a multi-award winning early and accurate disease diagnosis company based in South San Francisco, CA. Since inception in 2015, Enable has been awarded 10 grants from agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund and won the HBS New Venture Competition for the region in 2016. Enable’s researchers have also been supported by the Gates Foundation at Stanford. Enable is currently developing an improved rapid COVID-19 test with its public health laboratory partners. Dr. Seftel also serves as an Immunology research panel reviewer for the National Institutes of Health. He is currently the Principal Investigator for two additional research projects sponsored by the NIH/National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease dealing with the development of ultrasensitive and highly specific diagnostic tests for a variety of difficult-to-detect diseases like Lyme disease and pediatric allergies. A Harvard Business School graduate, he did his clinical training at Harvard’s Beth Israel-Deaconess Hospital, Penn State and Loyola University of Chicago and served as a Co-Investigator in the landmark Stanford-JDRF-Enable Biosciences Type 1 Diabetes Assay Performance study.

**About our Event Sponsor**


King & Spalding LLP is a global law firm of over 1200 lawyers. We advise key players in the health care technology and life sciences sectors, and we work with companies at all stages of their life cycle, from development and emerging growth stage, to international commercial enterprises. The lawyers in our Women’s Health and femtech initiative bring experience from across all of our practice groups, including corporate transactions and finance, regulatory and compliance, and dispute resolution.

We advise early stage companies and the investors who fund them to bring practical solutions to the issues frequently faced during the earlier phases of growth and development. These issues often involve intellectual property strategizing, capital raising and structuring appropriate investment terms, addressing compliance in a changing regulatory landscape, and negotiating strategic business transactions. We help innovators position themselves to maximize growth and preserve value though a liquidity event, such as a company sale, an IPO or a merger into a SPAC. Our advice is tailored to the client’s situation and we value working hand in hand with our clients to understand their growth and business objectives to provide thoughtful, actionable and practical legal support. We advise clients on regulatory and compliance issues relevant to healthcare and life science innovators, including FDA, product coverage and reimbursement, healthcare privacy and data protection, telemedicine, and rules of interoperability. We understand how the complexities of the healthcare system, including the pressures presented by payers and providers, can present challenges for companies with unproven business models. As the healthcare landscape evolves and adapts in response to the global pandemic, we are increasingly counseling clients in growing areas such as telemedicine and virtual care, leveraging the capabilities of our leading healthcare and technology practices.