Dusty Johnson: “first I thank, Chairman Kohl and Senator Cochran for their outstanding work in putting together an excellent bill. An…”

“first I thank, Chairman Kohl and Senator Cochran for their outstanding work in putting together an excellent bill. An important part of this legislation provides funding for the Food and Drug Administration to perform its vital mission to protect and promote the public health. That mission includes the essential work of evaluating the safety and effectiveness of promising new life-saving and life-enhancing medical device technologies so that they may be used with patients in an expeditious manner. However, we must be sure that the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDHR) are provided with the adequate resources to carry out their work. The number of patents issued in the medical device sector has increased by 30 percent in recent years. The private sector is committing substantial increases in funding to healthcare research and development. We are fortunate that the FDA will be faced with the task of evaluating many new technologies that will benefit all of us next year. It is my hope that we could review this issue in conference to ensure that the premarket review function at CDRH receives an appropriate level of funding to carry out their mission.”