Congressman Fred Upton is working on a version 2.0 of his 21st Century Cures legislation. He met with President Joe Biden last week to discuss how the first bill, passed in 2016, has been working. Upton and legislative partner on the plan Congresswoman Diana DeGette sought Biden’s thoughts on the next bill.
“We wanted to update where we are on many different fronts as it’s literally been five years,” Upton told WSJM News. “From President Biden’s perspective, his idea is to have a whole new research arm with the Department of HHS to really go out, study, research, and finance cancer research to an even larger degree.”
Upton says 21st Century Cures helped to get COVID-19 vaccines approved, as the bill was intended to boost research and speed up the approval of drugs and medical devices. He and Degette are working on an early draft for the next bill now, and could have what Upton called a “talking paper” in April.
