1 of 1- Goose
- Cogito ergo sum
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Trump’s story about American innovation depends on the World
Trump’s most inspiring story about American innovation depends on the rest of the world
By Carolyn Y. Johnson By Carolyn Y. Johnson Wonkblog
March 3 at 7:01 AM
President Trump introduced the country Tuesday night to a young woman in a white jacket seated next to her father — a man who once aspired to be a fighter pilot, but for nearly two decades has made a career out of trying to cure his daughter and son of a rare, life-threatening disease.
In broad strokes, the president sketched the outlines of their story: As a baby, Megan Crowley was diagnosed with Pompe disease, a genetic disease that causes progressive muscle weakness. Her father, John, partnered with a scientist to found a small biotech company to find a cure. That company was acquired by a bigger one, eventually leading to the drug that has allowed Megan to defy doctors’ expectations that she’d die in childhood. Today Megan is a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame and John is at the helm of a different venture, Amicus Therapeutics, working to develop an even better treatment for her disease — they hope, a cure. It’s an inspiring tale of innovation, invention and healing that was chronicled in a series of Wall Street Journal articles and a book, which inspired a movie called “Extraordinary Measures” starring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser.
“Megan can be quite a fierce and passionate advocate,” John Crowley said in an interview Wednesday, between meetings with lawmakers to advocate for more attention on rare-disease therapies. “She's a very, very smart and caring human being.”
The short vignette, embedded in a lengthy address to Congress, was part of a call to slash regulations. But it was notable as one of the most inspiring stories about American business and innovation that Trump has told in his presidency, embodying a vision of business and economics that is almost precisely the opposite of the one he's been selling to his supporters.
Against Trump's promises of an American economic renewal fueled by protectionism and trade barriers, the full story of Megan’s miracle highlights the way critical innovations tend to emerge from a highly globalized network of manufacturing, knowledge-sharing and immigration — that could be disrupted by Trump.
As Trump said, Megan's presence is “about the unbounded power of a father's love for a daughter.” But dig deeper and the tale is about how Crowley's ingenuity and grit also depended on Genzyme, a Massachusetts company that grew into one of the biggest success stories in the American biotechnology industry under the leadership of Henri Termeer, a Dutch-born businessman.
The drug that saved Megan's life is a quintessential example of how American capital and research infrastructure draws cutting-edge scientists and talent from around the world, and how making progress depends on international and academic research collaborations.
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Last edited by Goose (3/03/2017 10:28 am)
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.