Bill Updating 21st Century Cures Act Includes New Research Agency

A bill that functions as a followup to the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016 has been introduced with the goal of continuing to put the heft of government behind improving healthcare for Americans.

The sweeping, 173-page bill, introduced by Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and called Cures 2.0, contains several provisions aimed at speeding up the delivery of new cures, treatments and innovations.

Chief among Cures 2.0’s offerings is the establishment of a new research-focused agency called the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H, that would be housed within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The legislation would authorize $6.5 billion to run the ARPA-H for the first three years.

“By creating ARPA-H, we will be bringing together some of our nation’s greatest minds to help find cures” to diseases such as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and ALS, said Upton and DeGette. “And we will — for the first time — be putting the full weight of the federal government behind the ongoing efforts to end these terrible illnesses as we know them.”