Congressman Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (GA-01) voted today to expedite the discovery, development and delivery of new medical treatments for thousands of diseases with no known cure while saving taxpayer dollars. The House passed H.R. 6, the 21st Century Cures Act today with Carter’s support.
“As the only pharmacist in Congress, I’ve seen firsthand the lifesaving innovations that American inventors have brought to health care over the last 30 years,” Carter said. “All too often, though, innovations are held up by unnecessary government road blocks standing in the way of bringing these treatments to the patients they could save. It is unacceptable that patients and families could wait up to 15 years for a new therapy because the federal government cannot keep up. I am pleased to support this bill today because it provides the necessary reforms to give scientists the ability to focus on discovering cures and delivering results instead of being held back by overly burdensome bureaucracy.”
While paving the way for a new era of medical innovation, H.R. 6 includes several permanent reforms in the Medicare and Medicaid programs that, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, will reduce the deficit by $500 million over the next decade.
“Not only will this bill save lives, it will also work to reduce our national debt and save American jobs,” Carter said. “H.R. 6 will develop cures instead of exacerbating the heavy costs of chronic illnesses that burden taxpayers while increasing US competitiveness around the globe. All Georgians and all Americans have been touched in some way by an incurable disease and it’s time to find cures, not just treatments.”
H.R. 6, 21st Century Cures Act:
- Removes barriers to increased research capabilities;
- Incorporates the patient perspective into the drug development and regulatory review process;
- Measures success and identifies diseases earlier through personalized medicine;
- Modernizes clinical trials;
- Removes regulatory uncertainty for the development of new medical apps;
- Provides new incentives for the development of drugs for rare diseases; and
- Helps the entire biomedical ecosystem coordinate more efficiently to find faster cures.
