The House of Representatives is expected to vote this week on what Republican leaders have called one of the most important pieces of legislation this year, the sweeping 21st Century Cures Act which would foster cutting-edge medical research, advance mental health reforms and fight an opioid epidemic.
U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, released the final version of the $6.3 billion medical innovation package on Friday.
“What we have in the 21st Century Cures Act is an innovation game-changer, a transformational bill to bring our health infrastructure light years ahead to best match the incredible breakthroughs that are happening by the day,” the committee leaders said in a joint statement. “And it is critical to remember that passing 21st Century Cures is the best way to ensure some of this funding occurs immediately in fiscal 2017.”
The landmark bill would provide $4.8 billion to the National Institutes of Health, including $1.4 billion for President Obama’s precision medicine initiative, $1.8 billion for Vice President Biden’s “cancer moonshot” initiative and $1.6 billion for the BRAIN initiative to better understand and develop treatments for diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Furthermore, states would receive $1 billion in grants to address an opioid crisis, and $500 million to the Food and Drug Administration.
“We look forward to swift and favorable consideration of the 21st Century Cures Act in both the House and Senate,” Upton and Alexander said.
Importantly, the bill outlines steps to bring drugs and medical devices to market faster. Those initiatives include expedited review for breakthrough devices, more patient involvement in drug approvals and streamlined review for combination products.
Also, 21st Century Cures includes mental health reforms stemming from the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act authored by U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
“The inclusion of long-sought reforms to our mental health system is the result of thoughtful, bipartisan legislating,” Upton and Murphy said in a joint statement. “We thoroughly examined the realities of our current mental health care system and how it could and should be improved. This news is a win for families in mental health crisis all across the country.”