House Overwhelmingly Approves 21st Century Cures Act
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the 21st Century Cures Act by a 396 to 26 vote on Wednesday, therefore sending the Senate a measure intended to speed up drug approvals and maintain U.S. leadership in research, while addressing priorities ranging from cancer to the opioid epidemic. This is an amended version of the legislation it passed last year, which stalled in the Senate after key committees supported only portions of the bill.
Included in the bill is $4.8 billion for the NIH to fund three Obama administration efforts: $1.8B would go to the Cancer Moonshot, $1.6B would go toward the BRAIN initiative, and $1.4B toward the Precision Medicine Initiative. The bill also includes $500M over 10 years for the FDA, in part for use to fill vacant positions and quicken reviews of new drugs.
