Dear Chairman Harkin, Ranking Member Cochran, Chairman Obey, and Ranking Member Tiahrt:
We respectfully request that the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies provide funds in Fiscal Year 2011 to finance the newly enacted Cures Acceleration Network (section 10409 of P.L. 111-148) at the authorized level of $500 million.
As organizations that advocate on behalf of children with cancer and their families, we strongly support policies that facilitate the development of safer and more effective drug therapies, especially for small patient populations that offer a small market and little financial incentive for drug developers in private industry.
Pediatric cancer is many different, rare diseases, and genomic understanding is revealing further subtypes within these diseases. Each year, about 12,500 children are diagnosed with one of these cancers, and cancer remains the leading cause of death by disease in children under age 15.
For cancers in adults, the biotech and pharmaceutical industries assume responsibility for developing and testing new anti-cancer drugs based on biological discoveries about how cancer works. For childhood cancers, there is no sector or system responsible for bringing exciting new laboratory findings into medicines for children.
As a result, children with cancer are treated with therapies developed for adult patients. The current therapeutic strategy of intensifying conventional chemotherapy is reaching its limits in effectiveness. Further the toxicity of these treatments, provided to children during critical stages of development, threatens survivors with a host of serious late effects that are manifested over their lifespan. As knowledge about the underlying biology of cancer has mushroomed in the past 10 years, it has become clear that steps must be taken to bring new insights about molecular pathways of cancer into a new generation of more effective, safer treatments. What is routinely referred to as the “Valley of Death,” the chasm between research focused on the discovery and research to develop new anti-cancer therapies, is a chasm that requires a fresh approach in order to bring medicines to children where there is no commercial interest.
The Cures Acceleration Network (CAN) offers a mechanism that could directly facilitate the pace of new therapy development for childhood cancers. As you know, CAN establishes a new office in the NIH Directorate to make grants to help facilitate the process of turning new discoveries into new therapies. A board of 24 members from research, FDA, venture capital, patient advocacy groups and others will help coordinate NIH research funded activity with FDA mechanisms of drug approval. Through the CAN funding mechanism, national experts will be able to lend their expertise in a systematic way to solving the complex preclinical development necessary to bridge the “Valley of Death” in drug development for childhood cancers.
We urge Congress to meet its stated commitment to improved quality of care for patients through health care reform by fully funding CAN with the goal of accelerating access to safer, more effective therapies, particularly those for which the commercial market remains inadequate. We therefore request that the Subcommittees provide $500 million for CAN in the FY 2011 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Appropriations bill.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Children’s Cause for Cancer Advocacy
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation
Sarcoma Foundation of America
Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses (APHON)
American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPHO)
Association of Pediatric Oncology Social Workers (APOSW)
American Academy of Pediatrics
CC: Members of the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor, HHS, Education
]]>Dear Chairman Harkin, Ranking Member Cochran, Chairman Obey, and Ranking Member Tiahrt:
We respectfully request that the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies provide funds in Fiscal Year 2011 to finance the newly enacted Cures Acceleration Network (section 10409 of P.L. 111-148) at the authorized level of $500 million.
As organizations that advocate on behalf of children with cancer and their families, we strongly support policies that facilitate the development of safer and more effective drug therapies, especially for small patient populations that offer a small market and little financial incentive for drug developers in private industry.
Pediatric cancer is many different, rare diseases, and genomic understanding is revealing further subtypes within these diseases. Each year, about 12,500 children are diagnosed with one of these cancers, and cancer remains the leading cause of death by disease in children under age 15.
For cancers in adults, the biotech and pharmaceutical industries assume responsibility for developing and testing new anti-cancer drugs based on biological discoveries about how cancer works. For childhood cancers, there is no sector or system responsible for bringing exciting new laboratory findings into medicines for children.
As a result, children with cancer are treated with therapies developed for adult patients. The current therapeutic strategy of intensifying conventional chemotherapy is reaching its limits in effectiveness. Further the toxicity of these treatments, provided to children during critical stages of development, threatens survivors with a host of serious late effects that are manifested over their lifespan. As knowledge about the underlying biology of cancer has mushroomed in the past 10 years, it has become clear that steps must be taken to bring new insights about molecular pathways of cancer into a new generation of more effective, safer treatments. What is routinely referred to as the “Valley of Death,” the chasm between research focused on the discovery and research to develop new anti-cancer therapies, is a chasm that requires a fresh approach in order to bring medicines to children where there is no commercial interest.
The Cures Acceleration Network (CAN) offers a mechanism that could directly facilitate the pace of new therapy development for childhood cancers. As you know, CAN establishes a new office in the NIH Directorate to make grants to help facilitate the process of turning new discoveries into new therapies. A board of 24 members from research, FDA, venture capital, patient advocacy groups and others will help coordinate NIH research funded activity with FDA mechanisms of drug approval. Through the CAN funding mechanism, national experts will be able to lend their expertise in a systematic way to solving the complex preclinical development necessary to bridge the “Valley of Death” in drug development for childhood cancers.
We urge Congress to meet its stated commitment to improved quality of care for patients through health care reform by fully funding CAN with the goal of accelerating access to safer, more effective therapies, particularly those for which the commercial market remains inadequate. We therefore request that the Subcommittees provide $500 million for CAN in the FY 2011 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Appropriations bill.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Children’s Cause for Cancer Advocacy
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation
Sarcoma Foundation of America
Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses (APHON)
American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPHO)
Association of Pediatric Oncology Social Workers (APOSW)
American Academy of Pediatrics
CC: Members of the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor, HHS, Education
]]>