Sam Brownback

I think we should really look at a key issue, which is the economics of--you know, FDA and NIH can do all the work they can, but if the drug companies do not step in and deliver for us, it'll continue to be a major challenge.

I wonder if you've surveyed some of the countries and places you're working, and ask them for the top 10 priorities that they had.

It's my hope that, in the future, when the good Samaritan story is told, it's the United States that's the one that stops and helps.

I appreciate my colleague commenting about energy. There is a bipartisan energy bill that I hope the President discusses tomorrow. It came out of the Energy Committee on a bipartisan vote. It doesn't increase cap and trade. I certainly…

I hope you can illuminate us on what's taking place, and what we can do to try to help out.

We are particularly concerned about the neglected diseases that you presented earlier on.

With the support of Senator Brownback, Section 740 of the fiscal year 2010 Appropriation Act directs FDA to establish internal review groups.

Do you have any technical response or thoughts to it?

It's just not good enough. I know we can do better than this.

But, your ability to identify areas to work on----

It's my hope we can move this process on forward, and in doing that, target this.

Thank you for your leadership on this. I know you've worked in the field, then got frustrated...

We are delighted that the Brownback-Brown provisions have led to initiatives, such as the Priority Review Voucher Program.

I'm frustrated, because I've been working in this space for 5 or 6 years, and I'm kind of, 'All right. Where's the product, here?'

The old model of a billion dollars to develop a drug doesn't work in this category.

And I have noticed that a lot of key scientists around the world, some of the most cost-effective things we could do to improve lives of the most people is micronutrients.

I don't want to give somebody leadership, if you guys have worked it out internally, but it sure seems like----

It doesn't seem like we're getting there yet with rare and neglected diseases.

Less than 3 percent of the rare diseases have an FDA-approved treatment.

Thank you very much for inviting me to testify today on interventions to combat rare and neglected diseases.

It's really important for them to own this process. And we're not going to be there forever.

We welcome Senator Brownback's recommendation to Administrator Shah to support the review process to shorten pathways for neglected diseases.

I was here when the Congressional Review Act was put into place for the very purpose it is being used for, which is when we have a Federal agency that overreaches and seeks to put in place a regulation that will cost tens of billions of…

That would be significant to some people I know--me in particular.

Further endangering civilians is unacceptable, and the international community should work to ensure that there is a clear, viable strategy for their protection.