House Passes 21st Century Cures Act for Healthcare Innovation

The Cures Act also provides $1 billion in funding for grants to treat opioid addiction and abuse, primarily through prescription drug monitoring programs and the implementation of new abuse prevention programs.

A sprawling health bill expected to pass the Senate and become law before the end of the year is a grab bag for industries that spent plenty of money lobbying to make sure it happened that way. “Of course, there are still improvements that could have been made to the legislation; but this bill constitutes a real bipartisan effort to move medical research and health care delivery into the 21st Century”. “The Senate should promptly pass this bill so that the president can sign it”, the White House said Wednesday. Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the minority leader, acknowledged that there had been “angst” over the legislation among his colleagues, and several, including Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), have said they will oppose it.

The compromise, which envisions spending $6.3 billion over the next decade, was condemned by consumer groups and some Democrats as a present to drugmakers that promised only paltry spending increases for underfunded federal programs.

“Congress should not rush to pass this almost 1,000 page bill before there is time to thoroughly review it and understand the public health consequences”, Public Citizen said in a statement.

Michael Bottecelli, director of the National Office of Drug Control Policy, said in a press call Wednesday only one person in nine who needs treatment receives it.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the HELP committee, said her colleagues are “getting very excited” about the bill.

“To be fair, the act now contains a whole set of provisions around mental health, substance abuse, and child and family services which were not originally part of the act”, she said.

It provides $1 billion over two years to battle opioid and heroin abuse and includes $1.8 billion to support Vice President Joseph Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative, created to speed research into new cancer therapies.

A bill the House passed overwhelmingly allowing for accelerated drug approvals is expected to pass the Senate next week despite some lingering opposition in that chamber. On the House floor, Pallone said, “This is not a flawless bill, but after much consideration I believe the benefits outweigh my concerns and I support its passage”.

Sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the 21st Century Cures Act would give the FDA $500 million to streamline the clinical trial process and hire new staff.

On Monday, Warren said the funding for medical research in the current legislation amounted to only a “fig leaf”.

In a statement emailed to U.S. News & World Report, a spokesperson for the House Energy and Commerce Committee said Democratic lawmakers will be “proposing some additional changes to the bill that are important to Democrats in order to garner strong bipartisan support”.

In two noteworthy wins for the White House, the bill includes $1.4 billion for Obama’s precision medicine initiative, aimed at shaping treatments and care for people based on their genes and lifestyles.