Senate HELP Committee to Take Incremental Approach to Cures Legislation

It’s back to the drawing board for Congress and its biomedical innovation legislation efforts.

Senate HELP Committee Chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) has announced that the committee plans to hold three markups — the first being Feb. 9 — to consider a number of proposed bills.

With its multiple pieces of proposed legislation, the Senate appears to be taking an incremental approach to innovation. That’s in stark contrast to the House’s overwhelming passage of the 21st Century Cures Act (H.R. 6) last July.

One of the Senate bills seeks to make electronic health records more accessible, and the committee expects to release a bipartisan draft of that legislation later this week, Alexander said.

The committee also will consider the Advancing Targeted Therapies for Rare Diseases Act, which could allow sponsors of targeted drugs to rely upon data and information from previously approved targeted drugs.

The committee also scheduled a March 9 markup, during which it will consider a series of bills with the aim of “modernizing” the FDA and NIH, as well as providing congressional support for the President’s Precision Medicine Initiative.

A final markup will take place April 6.