Tillis Supports Increased Funding to Fight Cancer and Alzheimer's | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) supported the 21st Century Cures Act, bipartisan legislation that increases funding for Alzheimer's and cancer research, strengthens and improves important mental health programs, and gives additional money to fight the opioid crisis across the nation.

    "The Cures Act makes a major national investment in fighting and curing deadly diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's, and it's a perfect example of bipartisan legislation where the head and the heart meet," said Senator Tillis. "In addition to providing funding for Vice President Biden's cancer moonshoot initiative, the Cures Act also provides resources to combat the nationwide opioid addiction crisis, which has hit communities in North Carolina particularly hard. I'm proud to support this legislation."

    The 21st Century Cures Act provides an increase of funding to the National Institute of Health (NIH) for Alzheimer's research and Vice President Biden's "Cancer Moonshot" initiative. Vice President Biden visited North Carolina's Duke Cancer Institute earlier this year and used the Research Triangle area as a model for the nation with successful public-private partnerships and investments that have brought government, industry and academia together to pursue the treatment and ultimate eradication of deadly diseases.

    The 21st Century Cures agreement will:

• Help bring safe drugs and devices to market more quickly and at less cost by making needed reforms to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including: expedited review for breakthrough devices, increased patient involvement in the drug approval process, a streamlined review process for combination products that are both a drug and device, and freedom from red tape for software like fitbits or calorie counting apps.
• Provide $4.8 billion to National Institutes of Health, including: $1.8 billion for Vice President Biden's "Cancer Moonshot" to speed cancer research; $1.4 billion for President Obama's Precision Medicine Initiative to drive research into the genetic, lifestyle and environmental variations of disease; and $1.6 billion for the BRAIN Initiative to improve our understanding of diseases like Alzheimer's and speed diagnosis and treatment.
• Provide $500 million to the FDA.
• Provide $1 billion in grants to states to address the opioid crisis.
• Address the country's mental health crisis and help the one out of five adult Americans suffering from mental illness receive the care they need.
• Improve electronic health records for doctors and their patients.

• Contact: Daniel Keylin
•     daniel_keylin@tillis.senate.gov