Bilirakis Votes in Favor of #Cures2015
Washington, D.C. – Representative Gus Bilirakis, member of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, today voted in favor of the 21st Century Cures draft legislation. This version includes a number of provisions authored or supported by Representative Bilirakis. The bill passed unanimously.
"We need to find new ways to drive innovation in health care. In addition to adequately funding the National Institute of Health, which is included in this draft bill, we need to think critically and make structural changes in our health care system. It is imperative to reexamine what we've been doing and how we're doing it, and this is what 21st Century Cures is giving us: an opportunity to address some of the structural barriers to new cures and fresh ways to incentivize developments," Bilirakis said. "This bill has the potential to save and improve the lives of tens of millions of Americans, and I am pleased we have come together to get this done."
"There are over 7,000 rare diseases, impacting 30 million Americans – that is nearly one in ten people. Over 95% of these diseases have no treatments, because each rare disease impacts a small number of patients. My bill, the OPEN Act, leverages the free market to incentivize drug makers to repurpose drugs to treat rare diseases. This bill can help millions of people by ensuring medications are safe and effective for rare conditions," continued Bilirakis.
Representative Bilirakis' provisions in the legislation include:
- The OPEN Act, a bill to incentivize drugmakers and innovators to "repurpose" major market drugs for life-threatening rare diseases and pediatric cancers, opening the door to the development of hundreds of safe, effective, and affordable treatments for rare disease patients.
- A provision based on the Medicare Patient Safety and Drug Abuse Prevention Act, to establish a drug management program, which prevents high-risk beneficiaries from abusing controlled substances. This drug management program will monitor the prescribing and dispensing of controlled substances for at-risk beneficiaries to prevent prescription drug abuse and drug diversion. It is a commonsense measure utilized by private industry, TRICARE, and state Medicaid programs;
- A provision based on the Medicare Site of Service Price Transparency Act, to provide seniors with transparency in Medicare Parts A and B, by allowing seniors to better identify the out of pocket costs they might face for a given treatment or service, and site of services that is right for them and their budgets; and
- A provision based on questions Representative Bilirakis asked to FDA, which would require FDA to finish overdue guidance on combination products.
Representative Bilirakis is also an original cosponsor of a provision, authored by Representative Burgess, which would create a national data collection system for neurological diseases, including Parkinson's disease. Nearly 1 million people in the United States live with Parkinson's disease, and better data would pave the path to better treatments. Representative Bilirakis is the Co-Chair of the Parkinson's Caucus, and Parkinson's Action Network has endorsed this provision.
You can view Congressman Bilirakis' opening statement here.
Congressman Bilirakis heard about the importance of repurposing drugs from participants in a local 21st Century Cures Roundtable he hosted, and has spoken about the importance of repurposing drugs at a hearing in July of 2014.