Speculation is mounting on who will play key roles in the next administration, depending on who wins the November presidential election, Illinois Senator Barack Obama or his Republican counterpart, Arizona Senator John McCain.

Former CBO directors Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Daniel Crippen, Harvard health economist David Cutler, and senior policy adviser to Nancy Pelosi, Wendell Primus, are just a few of the names biopharma stakeholders should get to know better as the election looms.

Both parties agree that the election will presage health care reforms of some sort—whether they be a push for universal health coverage under Obama, or for a transfer of tax incentives under the employer-sponsored system to individuals and families to buy their own insurance, which McCain advocates.