A new bipartisan Congressional caucus has been formed around personalized medicine. The bicameral Personalized Medicine Caucus was formed by Sens. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Tom Emmer (R-MN).
In collaboration with the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC), which represents innovators, scientists, patients, providers, and payers, the four co-chairs have scheduled an introductory briefing for Feb. 26 to educate Congress and the public about the benefits of earlier detection, targeted treatment, and improved prevention strategies in personalized medicine.
Personalized medicine, sometimes called precision medicine, is a rapidly evolving field in which physicians use medical interventions to assess or alter the molecular characteristics, often genetic, that cause or contribute to certain diseases or predict whether certain patients will respond to various treatments.
The PMC contends that the country has sometimes had difficulty advancing and adopting the more sophisticated diagnostics and customized treatments underpinning personalized medicine, which include genomic sequencing tools, targeted therapies, and gene and cell-based therapies. If lawmakers do not address these public policy obstacles or if they unintentionally put additional barriers in place, the country may foreclose the opportunities associated with personalized prevention and treatment plans, it said.
The organization quotes Rep. Swalwell as saying, “As genomic sequencing becomes less expensive, opportunities increase to diagnose patients sooner and treat them more effectively. This caucus will go a long way toward ensuring that all American patients benefit from these and other transformative scientific developments in personalized medicine.”
“The co-chairs should be commended for convening a bipartisan group of lawmakers who are committed to advancing personalized medicine to improve patient care and make our health system more efficient,” said Edward Abrahams, PMC’s president, in a statement. “PMC looks forward to supporting the caucus as it seeks to accelerate progress toward this new and promising era in health care.”
