January 31, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
SAN FRANCISCO – A temporary immigration and refugee ban initiated by the White House against seven majority-Muslim countries linked to potential terrorism concerns has caused the chief executive officers of several Bay Area pharma and biotech companies to speak out against the ban.
The reaction of the CEOs follows concerns raised by members of the industry who expressed concern over a potential “brain drain” by denying international researchers and scientists entry into the United States to work on health-related projects. On Monday, BioSpace highlighted several anecdotal tales of how the temporary ban has affected the scientific industry, including the story of Iranian scientist Samira Asgari, who was planning to study gene response to tuberculosis at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston as part of post-doctoral program.
With tales like Asgari’s making the rounds, Grail Inc.’s Jeff Huber went on social media to call the ban “distressing.” In a post, Huber warned employees who do not have a U.S. passport, which would include those employees with green cards and a valid visa, to avoid travelling outside of the United States for the time being. Huber said he was ashamed of the actions of the new administration. He also said “America is a country of immigrants that stands for hope and opportunity,” according to the San Francisco Business Times. In his post to employees, Huber encouraged his colleagues to donate to the American Civil Liberties Union “to support the right to protest, civil rights and judicial balance to executive and legislative power,” the Times said.
Huber was not the only one from the Bay Area to condemn the practice. Kevin Judice, CEO of Dice Molecules, and Paul Hastings, CEO of OncoMed Pharmaceuticals Inc. also took to social media to express their concern over the temporary ban and its potential ramifications.
“We are an industry based in science and reason. This ban is not,” Hastings said in an email, according to the Times.
The Bay Area leaders are not the only members of the science community to express concern over the new administration. A science march on Washington, D.C. is being planned, although a date has yet to be set. The march is part of a backlash against the Donald Trump’s administration’s scrubbing of data regarding climate change from the White House website, as well as the websites of other federal departments. There are also concerns among the scientific community about how the administration will disrupt the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, disrupt funding of scientific research and negatively impact health insurance through the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act.
“The March for Science champions publicly funded and publicly communicated science as a pillar of human freedom and prosperity. We unite as a diverse, nonpartisan group to call for science that upholds the common good, and for political leaders and policymakers to enact evidence-based policies in the public interest,” the organizers said on the March for Science website.
