Roy Blunt: “I thank the Presiding Officer for the time to speak on the Senate floor. I am supportive of the bill that has come out…”

“I thank the Presiding Officer for the time to speak on the Senate floor. I am supportive of the bill that has come out of the HELP Committee to reauthorize user fees for the Food and Drug Administration. We have tried these user fees in the past, and under this bill they would be reauthorized for prescription drugs and for medical devices. This seems to be a way to help get these items to the consumer faster, to get them through the approval process more quickly, and to allow the companies that develop new medical devices or new prescription drugs to recoup their investment in a quicker way, which also allows them to get to the generic market in a quicker way. I think it serves the purpose of health care well, and the community that pays the user fees appears to be in support of their continued use, and I am too. This bill provides for faster verification of generics. It also adds a product called biosimilars to the process where fees would be paid. For all of the same reasons, it seems that those fees would also make sense for health care and make sense for health care costs. Again, it allows for recouping the investment that is made to develop a new drug quicker. That allows it to go to the generic market quicker. I hope this bill can be approved, and I hope it will be approved even before we leave for the Memorial Day work period. I think Senator Harkin, Senator Enzi, and their committee, the HELP Committee, have worked hard. I don't serve on that committee.…”