The Subcommittee on Health, chaired by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA), has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, June 11, 2014, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2322 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled “21st Century Cures: Examining the Role of Incentives in Advancing Treatments and Cures for Patients." Witnesses to be announced.
To help advance the 21st Century Cures initiative, the Health Subcommittee will continue its examination of the state of biomedical innovation by hearing from experts on whether additional incentives are necessary to accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery cycle. During the inaugural May 6 roundtable, Margaret Anderson, Executive Director of FasterCures, commented, “There are 7,000 known diseases. We have treatments for only 500 of them. We have work to do." The hearing will allow subcommittee members to better understand whether additional incentives are necessary to accelerate treatment and cures for patients, including those with the 6,500 diseases with no adequate treatment or cure.
Pitts commented, “We need to better understand what we can do to help spur the development of innovative new drugs and devices for patients with unmet medical needs. The committee remains encouraged by the enthusiasm and interest surrounding 21st Century Cures and we look forward to discussing opportunities to close the gaps between the discovery and regulation of new cures and treatments for our nation’s patients."
The Majority Memorandum, a witness list, and witness testimony will be available here as they are posted.
