U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have come out swinging against a heavily lobbied healthcare bill they say has been “hijacked” by Big Pharma.
The 21st Century Cures Act, poised to pass the House on Wednesday and the Senate soon after, would ostensibly advance medical innovation with increased funding for initiatives like Vice President Joe Biden’s cancer “moonshot” and Alzheimer’s research as well as provisions to accelerate the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval process.
Unsurprisingly, it has attracted significant interest from the pharmaceutical industry—according to Kaiser Health News: “Other than major appropriations bills, a transportation spending bill, and an energy infrastructure funding bill, the Cures Act garnered more lobbying activity than any of the more than 11,000 bills proposed in the 114th Congress, an analysis of the [Center for Responsive Politics] data shows.”