Senate approves medical innovation legislation

Cures Act includes funds to address opioid addiction, research diseases, speed FDA

States on the front WASHINGTON lines of the opioid epidemic would get an infusion of federal funds. Medical researchers would get money to study Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. Ailing patients would see faster approval of new drugs from the Food and Drug Administration.

Those changes would be ushered in by a sweeping medical innovation bill that won final approval in the Senate on Wednesday. The legislation, the 21st Century Cures Act, aims to spur new disease treatments, strengthen mental health care and fight an addiction crisis that has ravaged the country.

Supporters called the bill a “game- changer” that would touch the lives of virtually all Americans, whether a young child suffering from juvenile diabetes or a senior citizen grappling with Alzheimer’s. “This bipartisan legislation ... will help us take advantage of the breathtaking advances in biomedical research and bring those innovations to doctors’ offices and patients’ medicine cabinets around the country,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R- Tenn., the measure’s chief Senate sponsor and chairman of the health committee.

“A new day for medical research is on the horizon,” declared the bill’s House sponsors, Reps. Fred Upton, R- Mich., and Diana DeGette, D- Colo.

After clearing the House last week, the bill sailed through the Senate on Wednesday by a vote of 94- 5 over the objections of some conservatives who said it was too expensive and some liberals who argued it was a giveaway to the drug industry. President Obama hailed the bill’s passage Wednesday and said he would sign it.

“We are now one step closer to ending cancer as we know it, unlocking cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s and helping people seeking treatment for opioid addiction finally get the help they need,” Obama said in a statement. “The Cures Act makes important investments that will save lives.”

The legislation won bipartisan backing — from the White House to GOP leaders in Congress — for an array of policy changes and funding increases.

The measure would provide nearly $ 4.8 billion over the next decade to the National Institutes of Health for cutting- edge research on hard- to- treat diseases, including $ 1.8 billion to support Vice President Biden’s “Cancer Moonshot” initiative, which aims to accelerate research into new cancer therapies and expand prevention and early detection.

SENATE TV VIA AP The bill would provide $ 1.8 billion for Vice President Biden’s “Cancer Moonshot.” Part of the bill was named for Biden’s son, Beau, who died of brain cancer.