Chrissy Buteas: Saving lives around the world by finding cures in New Jersey – New Jersey Globe

OPINION

New Jersey – home to the Sopranos, the Jersey Shore, full-service gas stations and the long-running debate over pork roll versus Taylor ham.  Gritty, smart as hell, and loyal to our Jets . . . or Giants . . . or Eagles – that’s Jersey.  As a proud New Jersey native, I’ve fiercely defended our great state to those interlopers who criticize us as merely “that place between New York and Philly” (but with better beaches).

New Jersey is so much more than the memes and tropes that fly around the internet.  Often overlooked is the fact that for nearly 150 years, New Jersey has been one of the most important places on Earth when it comes to saving lives and improving the quality of life for patients, families and our loved ones all over the world.

Our long, proud and storied (but often unrecognized) history of leading the world stretches from Thomas Edison opening his laboratory in Menlo Park in 1876, to Johnson & Johnson establishing itself in New Brunswick in 1886, to Bell Labs opening its headquarters in Murray Hill in 1967.  The advances resulting from such a research-oriented state include the first steam locomotive to actually pull a train, the world’s first submarine, first light bulb, first movie, and even the first brewery in America.

The crown jewel of these transformative contributions – the one that also serves as the beating heart of New Jersey’s workforce and economy is our vibrant and robust life sciences ecosystem.  Our state’s medical technology, biotech, diagnostic, pharmaceutical and medical device companies have been at the forefront of cutting-edge medical innovations that have transformed global health, helping patients live longer, with less pain, with more independence while enjoying a greater quality of life.  These companies are the envy of our neighbors.  Rarely does a week go by without states like Pennsylvania or California, or other countries like Singapore or Ireland, trying to lure the operations of these great companies away from the Garden State.

These and other life sciences companies have driven breathtaking advances in medicine that have delivered new treatments and cures for some of the world’s most dreaded diseases.  For the first time in human history, we have cured hepatitis C – the days of liver transplants and life-long treatments are over.  We now have a simple vaccine that prevents cervical cancer, something unheard of less than two decades ago.  HIV/AIDS has become a chronic, manageable condition instead of the death sentence it once was.  A few years ago, we saw the first-ever Ebola vaccine – a life-saving advance for millions of people in Africa and around the world – followed a few years later by a vaccine (and diagnostics and treatments) for COVID-19 as well as the first-ever treatment to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s.

These are merely some of the latest extraordinary breakthroughs in health care these companies work so hard to discover.  New Jersey’s life sciences companies are working at breakneck speed to discover new treatments and cures for diabetes, any one of 7,000 rare diseases such as Pompe disease and Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, many types of cancer, and a vaccine against HIV/AIDS.  Drug discovery is a highly risky and costly proposition, with only one out of every 5,000 researched compounds making it to market after a 10-to-15-year development process at an average cost of $2.6 billion.  However, recent successes and cutting-edge advances in research and technology signify that we’re on the cusp of even more astounding medical progress than was imaginable even a few short years ago.

Recently, I became the new President and Chief Executive Officer of the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey (HINJ – www.hinj.org), a trade association representing the New Jersey companies that are working so hard to research and discover the next generation of treatments and cures.  Our mission – and one that I am immensely proud to help champion – is to ensure that New Jersey and our life sciences community continues to do what we’ve done so extraordinarily well for over a century – help patients around the world by finding cures here in New Jersey.