Lawmakers Open to New Ideas to Spur Drug, Device Innovation

Members of a key House panel indicated they’re open to additional legislative action if necessary to speed new medicines to patients.

Rep. Michael C. Burgess (R-Texas), chairman of the Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, and Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) made their remarks exactly one year after the House passed 21st Century Cures, a broad biomedical research bill to spur new drugs and devices. The Cures bill became law Dec. 13, 2016 (Pub. L. 114-255), and Burgess’s subcommittee heard Nov. 30 from the heads of the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration on how the ...