Giroir Commends Formation of Congressional BIOTech Caucus

Former Senior Trump Health Official Urges Focus on Innovative "Upstream" Approaches that Disrupt Current Paradigm of Costly Chronic Care

ATLANTA, July 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Brett P. Giroir, M.D., former Assistant Secretary of Health and Acting FDA Commissioner in the first Trump Administration, praised the recently announced formation of the bipartisan BIOTech Caucus and noted the critical importance of its mission to engage with sector leaders and to build awareness and bioliteracy among Members of Congress.

"I applaud Reps. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) and Stephanie Bice (R-OK) for seizing the initiative to form the BIOTech Caucus. With new FDA reform initiatives and focused efforts in Congress, innovative biotech companies will be better able to shatter treatment paradigms that have become too comfortable and too profitable for Big Pharma to change," said Giroir, CEO of Altesa BioSciences.

"This is precisely why I chose to lead a small innovative biotech company after completing my US government service," he continued. "The federal government can play a key role to help incentivize bio-entrepreneurship and leverage capital markets for the benefit of U.S. biotech companies poised to provide seismic, beneficial impacts to patients, taxpayers and the public-at-large."

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) treatment as paradigm shift example:

Giroir pointed to the transformation needed in the treatment of COPD, a condition that negatively impacts the health and well-being of 17 million Americans and nearly 500 million globally.  COPD, the Altesa CEO noted, costs the U.S. approximately $50 billion annually in health care spending and is predicted to become the world's leading cause of death in 15 years.  "Until we can eliminate the underlying causes of COPD, namely smoking and air pollution, patients deserve better than costly downstream immune-modifying injections that only help a minority of COPD patients avoid a minority of flare-ups," he continued.

Instead, he said, patients must be empowered to better care for their disease by using and integrating wearable technologies, at-home diagnostics, artificial intelligence, and specific treatments for the number one cause of exacerbations - respiratory virus infections.   "Diagnostics coupled with effective oral medicines have transformed our treatment of flu, COVID, Hepatitis C, and HIV.  If we can identify respiratory viruses early- and treat them early on, there is a good chance that we can markedly and cost-effectively reduce exacerbations of COPD, asthma, and other lung conditions," the Altesa BioSciences CEO said.

Giroir pointed to Altesa BioSciences collaborator, Sensifai Health, as emblematic of the needed emphasis on AI and wearables technology to facilitate upstream treatments to help people experiencing COPD. "The entire rationale of 'upstream' disease treatment is to intervene before health crises occur," Giroir pointed out. "Sensifai's objectives align perfectly with our mission to deliver transformative respiratory therapeutics at a time when they can be most effective." He noted a peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet Digital Health last week details the fact Sensifai's AI platform is the world's first wearable-powered system to predict acute inflammation with 90% sensitivity.

To encourage paradigm change, Giroir urged payers like Medicare and Medicaid to evaluate innovative care models that compare costly chronic downstream therapies versus common-sense upstream approaches like AI-assisted wearables, vaccination, preemptive treatment of viral infections, exercise, digital coaching, and Vitamin D supplementation.

"If such commonsense approaches proved effective – and I believe they will – the lives of COPD patients would be forever changed, and the U.S. health care system would save tens of billions of dollars annually," Giroir concluded. "These are the types of conversations Congress needs to hear, and I look forward to working in a positive, constructive manner with the BIOTech Caucus to help detail and explain the 'upstream' diagnostic and treatment changes we can no longer afford to ignore."

Download study: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(25)00068-8/fulltext

About Altesa BioSciences, Inc.

Altesa BioSciences is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company dedicated to developing new treatments for age-old threats to human health: high-consequence viral infections. These infections are particularly severe in vulnerable people, including those with chronic health conditions, like lung diseases, as well as the elderly and many people in underserved communities.

About Sensifai Health Inc.

Sensifai Health is a Canadian-Israeli Preemptive Health startup at the forefront of bioconvergence. Its AI-powered platform continuously analyzes data from wearable biometric sensors to deliver early alerts of systemic inflammation before symptoms appear. By identifying silent immune signals in vulnerable individuals, Sensifai enables timely intervention that helps prevent critical health events, reduce hospitalizations, and improve long-term outcomes.

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SOURCE Altesa Biosciences Inc.