news

This evening, Congressman Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) joined his colleagues in voting to pass the landmark 21st Century Cures Act, legislation that would expedite the discovery, development, and delivery of new treatments. The pro-innovation bill presents a transformational opportunity to find life-saving and life-improving cures to the diseases that millions of Americans face. At the same time, the bill will help the United States maintain its role as the world’s biomedical innovation leader. Ohio is home to a number of leading medical research institutions that will benefit from the streamlining of regulations and additional resources that the legislation provides.
 
Additionally, the bill makes important reforms to the nation’s mental health system and provides resources to combat the opioid epidemic.
 
“The brightest minds are working to find cures for life-threatening and life-altering diseases, but too often our current treatment development system takes too long,” said Latta. “The 21st Century Cures Act will bolster research, modernize clinical trials, and support collaboration to spur the development of critical cures and treatments. This legislation is the result of three years of discussions with advocates, patients, researchers, and medical innovators to find the best ways to streamline medical development in a safe and efficient way. Bottom line, this bill will save lives.”

The bill advances the development of new patient therapies by streamlining regulations and providing more clarity and consistency for medical innovators. It incentivizes the development of drugs for pediatric diseases and medical countermeasures, and allows the Food and Drug Administration to use a more flexible approach to reviewing medical devices and drugs so they can reach patients sooner.
 
On the research side of the equation, the 21st Century Cures Act provides additional funding to the National Institutes of Health and to Vice President Biden’s “Cancer Moonshot” initiative. It also supports high-risk, high-reward research that has the possibility to revolutionize the scientific field and lead to more medical breakthroughs.
 
Furthermore, the 21st Century Cures Act also provides $1 billion in grants to states to better address the opioid epidemic in local communities.
 
For more information on the provisions included in the bill, click here.
 
###