21st Century Cures Act Essay

Policy Overview

The Cures Act that was enacted on 13th Dec. 2016 is meant to expedite the process of medical product development. It is also aimed at making it possible for new innovations in the medical field to reach the intended beneficiaries (the patients) faster. The law derives inspiration from work by FDA to include the views of patients into drug development, biological devices and products in the process of making decisions by the FDA. The ability to modernize clinical trial plans and outcome assessments; which will hasten the review of novel products in the medical field, and creation of medical counter-measures have been made possible by the Cures Act (FDA, 2017). The Act provides new authority that will assist FDA to bolster our recruitment and retention of scientific, professional and technical experts. It also initiates programs for faster development of products.

The Effect of the Cures Act

i. Economics

FDA received a major boost when the Cures Act, in Title III, authorized 500 million dollars to be channeled to its accounts for the funding of specified medical product development and innovation efforts. The National Institute of Health is also permitted by the Act to authorize funding for special cases in which there is a high probability for advancing in medical research, but is also accompanied with high risk (Thompson, 2016). Previously, it took a long process to approve funding for projects with a high risk and high reward chances.



Several other areas where about $6.3 billion is included in the Act, to be spent in the next ten year period, include:

· $1.4 billion will be allocated to the Precision Medicine Initiative. Genetic data from volunteers will be fetched to assist in the development of new medical products and treatments (Thompson, 2016)

· $1.56 billion will be allocated to the brain initiative. The project intends to map the human brain in a better way, so that a more complete understanding of its functions can be realized; thus making it possible to develop fresh treatments for the current brain maladies.

· An amount in excess of one billion will be allocated to deal with drug abuse via prescription. The funding will be extended to states that come up with new education programs for the prevention and treatment of such drug addiction and substance abuse (Thompson, 2016).



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