25 Apr 2016 A Critical Moment for Medical Innovation in Health
An open letter to Congress from former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D., former Representative Bart Gordon, patient, health care provider, research, and biomedical organizations: Now is the time to advance medical innovation legislation
We congratulate the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee for passing a series of bills to advance medical innovation. This builds on the House of Representatives’ passage of the 21st Century Cures Act and the president’s call for a “National Cancer Moonshot.”
As you know, the pace of medical innovation is astonishing. Emerging therapies offer promise of cures for life-threatening diseases such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, Parkinson’s, and others. We are on the cusp of more personalized medicine that takes into account a patient’s unique genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. We must ensure research and regulatory institutions can keep pace.
Pending legislation would streamline getting safe and effective treatments, devices, and cures to patients, and bolster the FDA and NIH to effectively carry out their roles in this charge. We urge Congress to continue bipartisan negotiations and we remain optimistic an agreement can be reached that can garner broad support.
We strongly encourage Congress to act now. The opportunity to enact meaningful, bipartisan legislation this year is within reach. Millions of sick patients and the medical community are counting on it.
Sincerely,
- Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs
- ActivistsAgainstAlzheimer’s
- African American Network Against Alzheimer’s
- Allergy & Asthma Network
- Alliance for the Adoption of Innovations in Medicine (Aimed Alliance)
- Alzheimer’s Foundation of America
- American Association for Physician Leadership
- American Behcet’s Disease Association
- American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
- American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders
- American Society of Nephrology
- American Telemedicine Association
- Arthritis Foundation
- athenahealth
- Banner Health
- Beyond Celiac
- Cardio-Facio-Cutaneous International
- Cardiovascular Research Foundation
- Caregiver Action Network
- Celiac Disease Foundation
- Central Florida Behavioral Health Network
- CHIME
- Choroideremia Research Foundation, Inc.
- ClergyAgainstAlzheimer’s
- Cleveland Clinic Foundation
- CME Coalition
- Coalition for Imaging and Bioengineering Research
- Coalition for Clinical Trials Awareness
- Colon Cancer Alliance
- COPD Foundation
- Cure HHT
- EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases
- Dysautonomia International
- Fight Colorectal Cancer
- Friends of Cancer Research
- Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research
- Genetic Alliance
- H.E.A.L.S of the South
- Infectious Diseases Society of America
- Intel Corporation
- International Essential Tremor Foundation
- ICAN, International Cancer Advocacy Network
- LatinosAgainstAlzheimer’s
- International Foundation for Autoimmune Arthritis
- Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
- Lung Cancer Alliance
- Lupus and Allied Diseases Association
- Lupus LA
- Lung Transplant Foundation
- Lupus Foundation of America
- LymeDisease.org
- M-CM Network
- March of Dimes Foundation
- Men’s Health Network
- Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America
- National Alliance on Mental Illness
- National Alopecia Areata Foundation
- National Down Syndrome Society
- National Fragile X Foundation
- National Health Council
- National Lymphedema Network
- National MPS Society
- National Multiple Sclerosis Society
- National Osteoporosis Foundation
- Noah’s Hope
- Oncology Nursing Society
- Parkinson’s Action Network
- Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research
- Preeclampsia Foundation
- ResearchersAgainstAlzheimer’s
- Rare Disease United Foundation
- Shire
- The LAM Foundation
- Veterans Health Council of Vietnam Veterans of America
- WomenAgainstAlzheimer’s
