A bill that would reauthorize funding for animal drug research advanced out of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (health committee) on Feb. 28. The Animal Drug User Fee Act (ADUFA) was approved with little objection in a normally very partisan committee.
Upon passage, Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said that the committee has taken a critical step in updating legislation to help keep our animals healthy after the committee approved a reauthorization of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) animal drug and generic animal drug user fee agreements. The committee also approved three bipartisan public health bills to encourage pediatric cancer research, support rural health care, and help grandparents raise healthy grandchildren.
As covered in the Feb. 19 issue of WLJ, reauthorization is necessary every five years and gives FDA the authority to collet user fees from the makers of new animal drugs and generic drugs. The current user fee agreements expire on Sept. 30, 2018.
“These are four important bipartisan public health bills that will reauthorize the Food and Drug Administration animal drug and generic animal drug user fee agreements, encourage pediatric cancer research, and support rural health care and grandparents raising their grandchildren, which is especially important due to the opioid crisis,” Alexander said.
Alexander continued, “I am glad we have taken the first step today to advance the animal drug and animal generic drug user fee agreements. This is a critical step in ensuring we reauthorize on time the legislation that will help bring new drugs to farmers and ranchers, families, and veterinarians to keep their animals healthy and help keep our food supply safe. If we do not pass this legislation to reauthorize these agreements by the beginning of August, FDA will be required to begin sending layoff notices to more than 115 employees, which will slow down and jeopardize the review and approval of new drugs. I urge the Senate to quickly pass this important legislation.”
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) was pleased with the committee action. Allison Cooke, NCBA executive director of government affairs, explained that the fees help pay for FDA employees “to make sure that we get animal drugs that our producers use every day pushed through and verified for safety and efficacy so that they in turn can turn around and use those drugs and keep our animals safe and healthy.”
Cooke added, “It is an important program that we have to reauthorize every five years, and so we’re glad to see that the committee pushed this through today very quickly.”
The measure will now move to the full Senate, where, if approved, it will advance to the House of Representatives where NCBA is optimistic about it passing. Cook said that in earlier conversations with House members it was noted that the bill passing without major disruption on the Senate side would move a lot easier through the House. “I think the committee over there is certainly ready to get moving,” Cooke said. — WLJ
