Senate Health Committee passes Advancing Research for Neurological Diseases Act of 2015

The Senate Health Committee passed the “Advancing Research for Neurological Diseases Act of 2015” (S. 849)” on Tuesday, which will establish a national surveillance system for neurological diseases. The full Senate will now consider the bill.

The objective of S. 849, sponsored by Sens. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., is to enhance and coordinate efforts to track the epidemiology of neurological diseases in the United States, such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.

Johnny Isakson

Chris Murphy

The bill was approved at first markup by the Senate Health Committee after being brought up for a voice vote by Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.

The bill provides for the collection and analysis of data on the incidence and prevalence of these diseases, as well as information pertaining to demographics, risk factors, diagnosis and disease progression markers.

The bill, as it was introduced, would amend the Public Health Service Act to require Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to incorporate information it obtains into a National Neurological Diseases Surveillance System. It would also require the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure the system facilitates further research on neurological diseases, according to a summary of the bill written by the Congressional Research Service.

Isakson, who announced in 2015 that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, said the collection of this information would help to advance treatment efforts in the U.S.

“We can accumulate a body of evidence and clues that can give us the chance to have breakthroughs on any one of those diseases … if not all of them,” he said.

Murphy added that the data registry provided for within the bill will help to connect the experiences of those affected by neurological diseases with current national research efforts.

“What this bill really is about is creating a doorway that allows for people who are struggling every day with this illness to walk through and greet those who are working on pathways to cures and treatments,” he said.

Representatives from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society thanked Isakson and Murphy for their hard work and for sponsoring the bill. However, Bari Talente, executive vice president advocacy at the National MS Society, told Healio.com the society was concerned with several changes made to the final version of the bill.

“We are grateful that Senators Isakson and Murphy have been leaders on this issue and for ushering the Advancing Research for Neurological Diseases Act through the HELP Committee’s mark-up process, despite the language changes that occurred such as the softening of requiring the Secretary to develop a comprehensive data collection system to instead allowing the Secretary to improve the collection of epidemiological and surveillance data by incorporating the data into a registry. This could hinder the data collection system’s ultimate success. We are happy to be one step closer to establishing a data collection system that will help us track and better understand neurological diseases and we look forward to working with the bill supporters and the committees of jurisdiction as the legislation moves ahead,” she said. – by Robert Linnehan

Reference: www.govtrack.us