Press Releases
Griffith Statement on 21st Century Cures ActToday the House of Representatives voted on the revised 21st Century Cures Act (House Amendment to Senate Amendment to H.R. 34 ), which passed 392-26. Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) is a co-sponsor of the original bill (H.R. 6) that passed the House in July, 2015. Congressman Griffith issued the following statement: “The 21st Century Cures Act facilitates the discovery of new treatments for patients with rare diseases that currently have no cure. Further, the bill cuts out bureaucratic red tape in order to help speed up the approval of these medical breakthroughs, new discoveries, and biological treatments.” “In addition, the bill has several aspects that are important to patients and families in the Ninth District, including grants to the states to help combat the opioid epidemic and reforms to improve our mental health system.” “I am pleased with provisions that allow the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to streamline the approval of regenerative therapeutic products and encourage the FDA to identify opportunities for accelerated approval without lowering the current standards of evidence. Regenerative medicine involves cutting-edge technology that has the ability to repair tissues and organs, or regenerate cells. If a drug shows potential to treat or cure a serious or life-threatening disease, the bill facilitates a program for expedited review.” “The bill requires new federal spending, but Congress has identified ways to fund the research. Although this means the money can’t be spent in other ways, research to cure rare diseases that currently have no cure, I believe, is an appropriate use of federal funding.” “While the private sector does undertake their own medical research and development, they focus on treatments and cures that can be sold on a large scale. The federal government must spearhead the research for treatments for rare conditions or cures for diseases that may only affect a few thousand people.” Background: 21st Century Cures brings our health care infrastructure into the 21st century, delivering much needed hope for patients and their loved ones. It accelerates the cycle of discovering, developing, and delivering new cures and treatments and ensures that America remains the global leader in biomedical innovation. The bill provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help researchers change the way we fight disease. The Energy and Commerce Committee, on which Congressman Griffith serves, has worked on this initiative since May of 2014, and held hearings in Washington, D.C. and roundtable discussions throughout the nation at which medical experts and patient advocates shared their perspective on how to best accelerate the pace of cures to help patients. On October 22, 2014, Congressman Griffith held one such roundtable in Blacksburg with Congressman Phil Roe M.D. (R-TN) and a number of the region’s medical experts. Ideas from these hearings and roundtables were used to craft the 21st Century Cures Act, which went on to pass the Energy and Commerce Committee on May 21, 2015 in a bipartisan vote of 51-0. Further, Congressman Griffith and Congressman Roe held a roundtable about opioid abuse, and funding to help combat the epidemic is included in the revised Cures bill. Since the time that the Cures bill passed the House in 2015, the Senate passed a number of corresponding bills, and the two chambers have worked to craft a final bill to pass a vote in both houses. If passed in the Senate, it will head to President Obama who supports the passage and has indicated he will sign it into law. ### |