Senate Committee Passes 7 Biomedical Innovation Bills

The Senate HELP Committee last week unanimously approved seven bills as part of its biomedical innovation agenda, the upper chamber’s piecemeal version of the House’s 21st Century Cures Bill passed in July 2015.

Of the seven bills passed, only the Advancing Targeted Therapies for Rare Diseases Act of 2015 (S. 2030) would have a major impact on drugmakers. That bill would allow drugmakers to rely on previous data for additional targeted therapies to treat patients with the same rare disease.

In contrast, the House’s version would allow drugmakers to rely on data previously submitted for a different drug or biologic that uses the same underlying approach.

The approval marks the first step toward creating a Senate counterpart to the House 21st Century Cures Act. However, the Senate version is introducing legislation in three different markup sessions rather than one measure.