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Senate health committee considers seven biomedical innovation bills

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The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will consider seven bipartisan bills on biomedical innovation tomorrow, Feb. 9, at the first of three executive sessions.

“Senators and staff on our committee have been working together throughout 2015 to produce a number of bipartisan pieces of legislation that are ready for the full committee to consider,” Committee Chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said in a press release. “The House has completed its work on the 21st Century Cures Act. The president has announced his support for a precision medicine initiative and a cancer ‘moonshot.’ It is urgent that the Senate finish its work and turn into law these ideas that will help virtually every American.”

Lamar Alexander

The bills slated for consideration on Tuesday include:

• The “Advancing Targeted Therapies for Rare Diseases Act of 2015” (S.2030), sponsored by Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Richard Burr, R-N.C., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, which will speed up the development and approval of genetically targeted therapies for special patient populations with an unmet medical need;
• The “FDA Device Accountability Act of 2015” (S.1622), sponsored by Sens. Burr and Al Franken, D-Minn., which will streamline the FDA’s evaluation process for medical devices;
• The “Next Generation Researchers Act” (S.2014), sponsored by Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, which is intended to foster opportunities for new researchers;
• The “Enhancing the Stature and Visibility of Medical Rehabilitation Research at the NIH Act” (S. 800), sponsored by Sens. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., Bennet, Hatch, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Collins, which was created to strengthen rehabilitation research at the NIH;
• The “Advancing Research for Neurological Diseases Act of 2015” (S.849), sponsored by Sens. Isakson and Chris Murphy, D-Conn, which will allow for data collection and analysis related to the epidemiology of neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis and establish a national surveillance system;
• The “Preventing Superbugs and Protecting Patients Act,” sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., which will address the slow response to recent drug-resistant outbreaks in health care facilities associated with endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography; and
• Bipartisan legislation sponsored by Sens. Alexander and Murray, which is intended to reduce unnecessary documentation and increase accessibility of EHRs for health care providers, and enable patients to have easier access to their own health records.

Two additional executive sessions are scheduled for March 9 and April 6. Tomorrow, Infectious Disease News will offer real-time coverage of the Senate health committee’s meeting. Check back throughout the day on www.healio.com/ID to stay informed about the status the bills, and follow us on Twitter: @InfectDisNews.