Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.) recently introduced a bill that would promote the development of meaningful treatments for patients with chronic and rare diseases.
The proposed bill, the Modernizing Our Drug and Diagnostic Evaluation and Regulatory Network Cures Act, would change the U.S. drug evaluation process to encourage the discovery and development of new treatments for chronic and rare diseases.
“Developing new medicines is a complicated, time-consuming, and expensive process where the costs can often outweigh the rewards for bringing such drugs to market,” Lance, the chairman of the Congressional Rare Disease Caucus, said. “And in a time of increasingly scarce federal resources, it is critical that health research funds are spent most effectively to meet the needs of patients. The MODDERN Cures Act will help encourage the rapid development of new, safe and effective medicines to help as many people as possible.”
The legislation is intended to promote the development of drugs abandoned during the development process. It would do so by creating a new category of drugs known as dormant therapies for compounds with inadequate patent protection that may be able to treat conditions with unmet medical needs.
Lance said that by updating the innovation ecosystem, a pipeline for new therapies would open that would benefit patients with conditions including, Alzheimer’s, ALS, Parkinson’s, autoimmune diseases and cancer.