Nov. 19 Quick Takes: Build Back Better, Act for ALS move ahead

The U.S. House of Representatives Friday passed the Build Back Better Act (H.R. 5376), which includes provisions giving the federal government power to regulate the prices of some of the drugs that Medicare purchases. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Medicare drug price regulation provisions will save the federal government $79 billion over a decade. If enacted, the bill would alter incentives for drug development, leading companies to prioritize biologics, and to limit investments in small molecule drugs for Medicare populations. The Senate will modify the bill before voting on it, probably in mid-December. If it passes the Senate, the bill will be modified again in the process of crafting a unified House-Senate version.

The House Energy & Commerce committee passed The Act for ALS (H.R. 3537; S. 1813) this week. The bill, formally, the Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies for ALS Act, would make $100 million available each fiscal year during 2022-26 to fund early access to ALS therapies in the clinic, accelerate ALS and neurodegenerative disease therapy development through a public-private partnership among NIH, FDA and an academic research center or non-profit, and increase R&D on treatments for rare neurodegenerative diseases through a newly created research grant program. The legislation, which is a priority among ALS patients and advocates, now heads to the House floor for a vote. ...