Over the past few decades, the United States has shaped and refined a remarkably productive ecosystem for developing bioscience innovations and bringing them to the marketplace. U.S. public and private investment in biomedical research has transformed scientific discoveries into drug therapies, vaccines, diagnostics and devices that improve and save patients' lives. This panel will explore the human and economic returns on these investments. Have new therapeutics proven to be cost effective over the long term? What are the societal payoffs from the huge investments in cancer research that have been made in recent decades? What are the returns from the introduction of newer cardiovascular drugs? Have these research investments reduced other costs in the health-care system, such as those associated with hospitalizations? Panelists will also look at bioscience's impact to the broader economy, including reduced absenteeism, higher productivity, and well-paying jobs created in the biomedical sector.