GAITHERSBURG, MD—As a part of its Strong Independent Leadership Tour, Hogan for Maryland today toured AstraZeneca’s Gaithersburg facility to discuss ways to continue to grow Maryland’s life sciences workforce.
“It was great to be back with the bright minds at AstraZeneca to see their cutting edge research in action and discuss how we can continue to ensure Maryland’s future as a bio hub and global innovator,” Governor Hogan said. “Our administration was proud to oversee a nearly 50% increase in the number of life science businesses that call Maryland home, as well as a significant increase in bio-manufacturing and life sciences employment. I look forward to building on this work in the Senate.”
Governor Hogan took questions from employees at a town hall where he discussed health care priorities, including bringing down out of control health care costs, protecting women’s reproductive rights, and supporting cancer patients and survivors.
Earlier this month, Hogan for Maryland toured an independent pharmacy in Baltimore City to highlight health care affordability issues and the need for bipartisan action to lower prescription drug prices.
In addition to enacting historic reforms that reduced premiums by 30%, Governor Hogan supported and signed legislation that held Prescription Benefit Managers (PBM) middlemen who are driving up the cost of prescription drugs accountable and required more transparency. Most PBMs today are owned by massive insurance companies who too often hold on to discounts and get in the way of decisions that should belong to doctors, pharmacists, and their patients.
As a senator, Governor Hogan will fight for legislation that requires these savings to be passed on to patients and taxpayers and lower health care costs. He will vote to force the Federal Trade Commission to aggressively investigate these unfair and abusive pricing schemes that make it more difficult to get the health care seniors need, and make pharmaceutical middlemen accountable to the public.
