House al­most unan­i­mous­ly pass­es bi­par­ti­san bill to pump $500M in­to ALS drug R&D

The US House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives vot­ed al­most unan­i­mous­ly on Wednes­day evening (423-3) to pass a bill that will pro­vide $500 mil­lion over five years to cer­tain small drug­mak­ers to cov­er the costs of R&D and to ex­pand ac­cess to pa­tients not el­i­gi­ble for clin­i­cal tri­als for po­ten­tial amy­otroph­ic lat­er­al scle­ro­sis drugs.

Rare neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­eases, like ALS, have been his­tor­i­cal­ly very dif­fi­cult to treat and to de­vel­op treat­ments for. But this bi­par­ti­san bill, in­tro­duced by Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) and dozens of cospon­sors, will pro­vide $100 mil­lion for each of fis­cal years 2022 through 2026 to help HHS award grants to fa­cil­i­tate the de­vel­op­ment and ac­cess to ALS drugs in­tend­ed to pre­vent, di­ag­nose, mit­i­gate, treat, or cure the dis­ease.

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