On the first day of the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, John Stanford, executive director of Incubate, called on industry leaders to take a more active role in advocacy. “I know some of you want to hide behind the business of what you’re doing. My plea: do something this year. Make advocacy a part of your year,” Stanford said as he opened the event.
Stanford was joined by Phil Hogan, former European Commissioner for Trade, and Richard Burr, former U.S. Senator from North Carolina and current policy advisor at DLA Piper. The panel discussed recent developments in biopharma policy following significant changes under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Reflecting on the past year, Burr noted that many anticipated challenges had materialized as expected with the new administration's focus on reducing federal government size and reshaping agency responsibilities. “We said a year ago that this was going to be a very challenging administration. We thought the focus would be on reducing the size of the federal government and reshaping the responsibilities of federal agencies. I think we’ve seen exactly that.” He added there were also unexpected moves, citing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s directive for the CDC to remove recommendations for several childhood vaccines: “It disrupts the market in a lot of different ways,” Burr said. “But, we said this administration would be disruptive.”
Burr encouraged attendees to seek opportunities amid uncertainty created by FDA changes and Most Favored Nation (MFN) drug pricing proposals introduced by Trump’s administration. “In chaos there is opportunity. Are you going to focus on the chaos, or spend the time focusing on the opportunity? I think that’s why it’s so important that there’s an event like this [JPM].”
Stanford then asked Hogan about MFN drug pricing and its reception in Europe. Hogan explained that Trump’s push for MFN pricing led EU member states to consider whether he might rejoin international organizations such as the World Trade Organization, which lost U.S. funding in March 2025 when Trump returned to office.
Hogan emphasized that applying MFN restrictions across all EU countries would be difficult due to each nation’s unique reimbursement systems: “The EU is 27 member states,” Hogan said. “Each has their own possibilities for reimbursements. MFN is a distraction; reimbursements are a distraction.” He suggested individual countries might pursue separate deals with Washington rather than acting as one bloc.
Stanford agreed in comments made after the panel discussion with BioSpace: “[The U.S.] can get a better deal in one-on-one situations. In that situation, the U.S. is always the 800-pound gorilla.” He added that Trump could use any aspect of U.S.-EU relations as leverage—including support for Ukraine during its ongoing conflict with Russia—when negotiating with Europe: “This is the moment that tests the EU’s ability to hang together.”
“I think this administration is deft at identifying possible levers via tariffs and other trade agenda items, all the way up to military agenda items,” Stanford continued. “Ukraine looms over Europe, and one of the things that the Trump administration has taught us all to do is not put anything in a silo. I think the administration will see the full toolkit—any U.S. dollars, intelligence, resources, efforts. Our blood, our sweat, our tears, our treasure. If Europe needs to be pulled to the table, they’ll put it on the table.” He also commented on broader uncertainties: “And I don’t know how Venezuela fits into this.”
Hogan offered further perspective from Europe: “The first thing Europeans didn’t understand was that Trump could be reelected,” he said. Now facing changed dynamics between American and European biopharma sectors—which have become entwined with political negotiations—Hogan observed: “We’re in a position where biotech is not a part of the geopolitical community, it’s a part of trade negotiation.”
In July 2025, according to analysts at BioSpace, an agreement between Brussels and Washington introduced a 15% tariff on pharmaceutical imports into Europe—a move expected by some experts to cost industry billions but considered manageable by others.
Hogan noted these tariffs stemmed from an agreement negotiated directly with President Trump's team rather than through formal channels requiring Congressional approval; thus making them inherently political and subject to rapid change depending on who leads in Washington: “For my European counterparts, there’s concern that a political agreement can be changed at a moment’s notice.”
