National security law

Senate Panel Passes Biomedical Innovation Legislation

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Wednesday approved the Medical Countermeasure Innovation Act, S. 2055, which aims to improve the nation’s preparedness to counter biological threats, including smallpox and anthrax, as well as such naturally emerging disease threats as Zika and Ebola.

Introduced by Senators (Richard) Burr (R-NC) and (Bob) Casey (D-PA), the bipartisan legislation would accelerate the pace of medical countermeasures, including vaccines and medicines, for public health emergencies. Essentially, if a company develops a drug and it’s approved, they get a voucher they can keep or sell that will speed up the review of another drug.

“Today we marked up seven more bills incorporating about 15 more bipartisan proposals and that—with the seven bipartisan bills passed last month—gives a substantial start to our innovation companion to the 21st Century legislation passed by the House of Representatives,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). “This committee produced an education bill that I considered to be the most important piece of legislation last year, and I think we can produce the most important bill of the Congress this year because our work on this bill will affect virtually every American.”