BIO Praises Advancement of Senate Biomedical Innovation Legislation

Washington, D.C. (April 6, 2016) – Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) President and CEO Jim Greenwood released the following statement regarding today’s Senate HELP Committee mark-up of legislation as part of the Senate biomedical innovation initiative:

“BIO was encouraged by the bipartisan mark-up today by the Senate HELP Committee of legislation as part of the Senate biomedical innovation initiative. In particular, BIO applauds the Committee’s passage of the Promise for Antibiotics and Therapeutics for Health Act, which would help address a critical barrier to the development of urgently needed novel antibiotics by creating a new approval pathway. We were also pleased that the Committee passed legislation to advance the President’s Precision Medicine Initiative.

“Further, the Committee took an important step to enhance the FDA’s ability to recruit, hire and retain world-class scientific and technical experts with the passage of the FDA and NIH Workforce Authorities Modernization Act. The Act would provide these agencies with common sense hiring authorities and tools which are essential if the FDA is to ensure that safe and effective new medicines, which are being developed with increasingly complex science, reach patients as efficiently and quickly as possible.

“BIO and our members have been engaged throughout this bipartisan process, and we will continue to work with members of both parties on common sense reforms to improve the discovery, development and delivery of new cures and treatments. We thank Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member Murray and all members of the Committee for their continued dedication to this important goal.”

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