(The Center Square) – U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., emphasized the importance of funding the National Institute of Health, NIH, and what role he sees Pennsylvania playing in the future of life sciences during a tour of a biopharmaceutical company on Tuesday.
“It’s the most magical time to be in life sciences and medical sciences,” McCormick told The Center Square. “And Madrigal is a perfect example of what we want in Pennsylvania.”
Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Conshohocken, is a Pennsylvania-founded biopharmaceutical company focused on delivering novel therapeutics for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), a serious liver disease with high unmet medical need.
Dr. Rebecca Taub, founder of Madrigal, began exploring therapies for MASH and metabolic disease in the early 2000s. During her research, she found an overlooked molecule that would become the first approved medication for the condition.
Rezdiffra (resmetirom) is a once-daily, oral, liver-directed thyroid hormone receptor (THR)-β agonist designed to address key underlying causes of MASH. It was the first medication approved for the treatment in the U.S. and Europe.
MASH is the leading cause of liver transplantation in women and the second leading cause of all liver transplantation in the U.S., and the fastest-growing indication for liver transplantation in Europe.
Beginning as a small team of researchers in Conshohocken, Madrigal now employs more than 1,100 in the U.S. and Europe. About 300 of those employees are based in Pennsylvania.
“It’s solving an incredibly hard problem,” McCormick said of Madrigal. “It’s got a blockbuster drug that is serving people, 50,000 patients and can turn to millions, and so this is the example of what I’m talking about when we’re trying to cultivate it.”
“And these things don’t happen without basic research, and that’s why the NIH is so important,” he added.
In September, McCormick penned an op-ed in the Washington Post in which he argued that the U.S. is “underinvesting in discovery,” and called for doubling NIH’s budget within five years.
The federal government spends $7 trillion a year, McCormick notes, while adding that less than 1% goes to NIH research.
As McCormick calls for a boost in NIH funding, the Office of Management and Budget proposed cutting its funding by nearly 40% last year.
According to the senator’s office in late March, Pennsylvania is the fourth largest recipient of NIH funding in the nation, with the state receiving $2.27 billion last year.
“Basic research is like national security,” McCormick told The Center Square on Tuesday. “If the government doesn’t fund it, it doesn’t happen.”
“So, I think it’s like a public good that the government should fund,” he added.
On Tuesday, McCormick told The Center Square that NIH funding has gone down in real terms because of inflation and noted that the private sector doesn’t fill that gap “because it’s too uncertain on whether there’s going to be a return.”
“So, I’m saying we should not only keep up with inflation, we should double it because it’s a time where the pace of change can accelerate so much, and we can help people so much,” he said.
McCormick is an ally of President Donald Trump, but has on multiple occasions criticized federal proposals to cut NIH funding.
“I’ve been in constant touch with the Trump administration since I’ve come into the Senate about NIH funding,” McCormick told The Center Square on Tuesday. “I’ve talked to NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya many times.”
Earlier this year, McCormick joined Bhattacharya for a visit to Penn Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he touted the agency’s impact on the Keystone State and again called for increased support.
“I don’t think the Trump administration agrees with my premise that we should double the spending, but that’s okay,” McCormick told The Center Square on Tuesday. “Congress appropriates, the administration puts forward its budget, so I’ve been a strong supporter of increasing the NIH budget.”
“And we actually have, even though the administration has proposed cutting the NIH budget 40% over the last two years, we’ve increased it by 3 or 5% or something like that,” he added. “I said double over the next five years, and I think by staking that ground out, hopefully I’ll be able to get additional supporters.”
A number of Democrats have voiced support for his call to double NIH’s funding, McCormick noted, while also naming GOP U.S. Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama and Susan Collins of Maine, as advocates.
McCormick made the case on Tuesday that “it’s going to take some time to build momentum,” but he feels optimistic if others also make the case on why NIH research benefits everyone.
He noted his call to double NIH’s budget also includes reforms to the agency. McCormick also believes the AI revolution is accelerating benefits for research and development.
During his visit to Madrigal, McCormick asked the company’s leaders what they would like to see from the federal government.
He told The Center Square that “the big thing” for pharmaceutical companies like Madrigal, a single drug company, is “making sure we have reciprocity with other markets.”
“So, one of the big things that all the pharmaceutical companies say is that they don’t have access to European markets in particular because they have barriers to entry, and they are very restrictive on pricing,” McCormick said. “And, so, one of the big things President Trump has said, which I 100% support, is that we need to lower the prices of drugs here in the United States and create most favored nation status.”
“Essentially, the concept is that Americans shouldn’t be paying double or triple what people in Europe pay for the same drug,” he explained. “And so one of the things that I think Madrigal would agree, and we all agree, is that we need access to fair pricing in those markets for the drugs we have, and that’s what the Trump administration has been trying to do, and I think that’s what most pharma companies are trying to do.”
