Republican Rep. Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania says that the medical device tax combined with the regulatory process by the Food and Drug Administration are hindering medical innovation.
"If you're going to get taxed right out of the gate, it's disincentive to invest in medical research and to do the R&D that a lot of companies do in order to discover the cures that have proven to be and proved public health outcome," Costello told John Bachman on "Newsmax Now" on
Newsmax TV Thursday.
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"What we want to do is make sure that we continue to invest and to innovate because in doing so we see a better public health outcome," he explained.
"The other area that's a big one is just the FDA regulatory approval process," the Pennsylvania Republicans contends.
"It takes too long — it takes over 10 years to go through all the clinical phases and ultimately get approval," Costello told Newsmax.
In addition, he says that "it's very costly. Over 10 years, over $1.2 billion, is sort of the average estimate, and what we want to do is incentivize and streamline that approval process so we can get more cures and drugs to market to help prevent illness and to help abate the more damaging effects that certain illnesses have on our society," he added.
Costello wrote an opinion piece on May 22 in The Times of Chester County, addressing the problems that are hindering medical innovation.
The Republican said that he is working with a group of bipartisan lawmakers to put together a measure, the
21st Century Cures, which he described as "a series of policy concepts that is designed to break down barriers and restore and maintain America's leadership position in the life sciences."
Costello told Newsmax that "what we want to do is make sure that we're streamlining things as best we can so that we're not tendering innovation."
"The notion of 21st Century Cures, and the policy aims of it are intended to streamline that process, are intended to provide a level of confidence that as a government, we're not looking to get in the way of maintaining America's preeminence in the fields of medical innovation, medical technology, biopharmaceutical industry and the life sciences industry," he explained.
"The more that we are clearing the regulatory hurdles so that we can innovate and discover and get drugs to market, the better off we're going to be as a country," he added.
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