Democrat and Republican lawmakers in the USA have called for bi-partisan policies to expedite diabetes research.
Speaking at a Diabetes and The Future of Healthcare Reform event, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) discussed what she saw as some of the obstacles to better care.
“What we see in the diabetes realm is a very slow process at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for developing and approving technologies, which really limits the access of diabetics to get the current standard of care.”
She added that the USA’s 21st Century Cures Act could be a model for expediting research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other institutions. Former President Obama signed that Act in 2016, authorizing $6.3 billion in funding to help accelerate medical product development.
More than 34 million US citizens have been diagnosed with diabetes and 7.3 million have been living undiagnosed with the disease, according to recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Despite being one of the most prevalent diseases in the U.S., many patients are unable to afford diabetes medicine and care.
Rep. Tom Reed, believes that the government needs to ensure new treatments and innovations can be quickly approved by the Food and Drug Administration, as well as make sure that they are accessible to people across the country.
“We do want diabetes to be a thing of the past, but we’re not there yet,” he said at the event sponsored by the Diabetes Leadership Council.
Advocacy Action: All Party Diabetes Groups can help turn wish lists into reality. Is there one in your Parliament? Could you start one? PDGN can help you to build and grow the effectiveness of your group.