Eagle Tribune - Ayotte Tours Salem Medical Device Supplier, Speaks About Taxes and Regulations

News Article

By Nicholas Golden

American Laboratory Products Company (ALPCO) Diagnostics - a life science and medical devices company - hosted Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, Friday to discuss small business regulation, innovation in the sciences, and her work to repeal the medical devices excise tax.

"The idea is to, No. 1, make sure that in this country we have access to the very best, and we're focusing on research and development of new medical devices that can help people live better quality lives and save lives," Ayotte said. "If you tax that, if you put money on that ... it's going to be passed on to consumers. If you pass this 2.3 percent tax on revenue, who's going to end up paying it?"

Passed into law as part of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, the tax has been suspended until 2018 by Congress. Ayotte wants to see the tax fully repealed, citing broad bipartisan support to do so indicated by a 2013 non-binding Senate resolution that passed 79 to 20 in favor of repeal.

Richard Conley, CEO of ALPCO, explained that the medical devices tax cost the business approximately $90,000, taking a toll on their pace of expansion.

"That's money we could have used to hire people," he said.

ALPCO employs approximately 40 people, and sells devices and equipment to other businesses. The company's research includes medical devices and health solutions pertinent to inflammatory bowel disease and insulin pumps in its labs on location at Keewaydin Drive.

Ayotte explained that while the bill to repeal the tax, the Medical Device Access and Innovation Protection Act, has bipartisan support, whether it will be passed or not is a question of gathering a strong enough push to move the bill through the legislative process.

Discussion also turned to difficulties dealing with regulation, particularly from the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA, Conley explained, asked his company to engage in costly clinical studies to prove the benefits of taking a certain pill that ALPCO had been developing, only finding out later that the FDA had had much of the necessary data in a different department of its organization.

"We went through all kinds of hoops, and jumps, and stairways," Conley said. "We decided, "this is gonna cost us so much money,' that we dropped the project."

ALPCO Vice President of Marketing Terry Fisher added that open discussion about expectations with the FDA has improved, however, regulation still puts a burden on small businesses. Ayotte agreed, arguing that overregulation harms businesses and consumers.

"You have people in this country (who) are going to Europe to get devices, insulin pumps for example, before they come here (to ALPCO)," she said. "With this approval process taking too long, we're denying people the opportunity to have a better device and have a healthier lifestyle."

Broader questions of regulation, from the Affordable Care Act to new overtime rules to reforming the tax code, were topics of discussion at the roundtable. Ayotte, whose husband owns a small business, empathized with arguments that small businesses are struggling.

"When you're a small business it's so much more burdensome, because you don't have an army of lawyers and accountants to comply with everything," she said. "Especially this administration, they have been very aggressive with issuing these regulations, from each of these agencies that don't go through Congress."

"There isn't a business I visit in this state ... that doesn't have a story about some alphabet soup agency that had some impact that doesn't make sense, unfortunately," she added.

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