Name: Matthew Schumaker
Firm: Biotechnology Industry Organization
Age: 31
As the chief Democratic lobbyist for the trade association that represents more than a thousand biotechnology companies, research centers, and universities, Schumaker has a broad mandate to protect innovation.
Patent reform is currently at the top of his agenda. He successfully worked to strip language harmful to his industry about damages in patent-infringement cases from the Senate’s version of the legislation, which passed in March. Another key win came during the debate over health-care reform, when he fought to get a provision included in the bill to give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to approve biosimilars, or generic biologic drugs—a power that will help protect financial incentives for his group’s member companies.
This article appears in the June 2011 issue of The Washingtonian.
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Marisa M. Kashino joined Washingtonian in 2009 and was a senior editor until 2022.
