Burgess Chairs House Budget Committee Health Care Task Force Roundtable on Budgetary Effects of Increasing Patient Access to Cell and Gene Therapies

Burgess Chairs House Budget Committee Health Care Task Force Roundtable on Budgetary Effects of Increasing Patient Access to Cell and Gene Therapies

Washington, D.C. - Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX), Chairman of the House Budget Committee Health Care Task Force led a roundtable titled "Paying for 21st Century Cures: Examining the Budgetary Effects of Increasing Patient Access to Cell and Gene Therapies."

During the roundtable Chairman Burgess examined the projected impacts to the federal budget as patient access to innovative cell and gene therapies continues to expand.

"We all know the healthcare struggle with budget issues. If we are ever going to move from where we are now to where we should be in the future we have to somehow fix the budget. Modifying genetic material within the patient's cells and developing personalized treatments were nonexistent before. We passed a big bill in 2016 [21st Century Cures Act], to accelerate new biomedical advancements. Leading up to that law being enacted, we held roundtables all over the country, discussions, and hearings for years leading up to actually passing the legislation and providing the funding for that research, and to streamline the approval process to foster collaboration.

I think we can look back to that success. And then the question becomes, what can we be looking forward to for future successes. Today was a crucial discussion in the licensing of gene therapy, regulatory hurdles, budgetary impacts, and potential policy solutions to build upon the 21st Century Cures Act," said Chairman Burgess during the roundtable.

Joining Chairman Burgess and Committee members at the roundtable were Chapin White, Director of the Health Analysis Division at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Dr. Peter Marks, Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dan Mendelson, Chief Executive Officer of Morgan Health and Mike Capaldi, Executive Director of the Institute for Gene Therapies.

Background:

• Unlike many existing medications, of which a single product is used to treat all patients, cell and gene therapies are personalized to a patient's individual cells and genes.
• Due to their personalization, many cell and gene therapies have been able to overcome longstanding barriers to treating certain diseases.
• These therapies have very high up-front costs due to their complex and personalized nature but have the potential to lower long-term health care costs by curing or significantly reducing the burden of disease.
• This poses unique budgetary challenges and opportunities to federal and state governments, private payers, and individual patients.
  

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