Political Quotes

“The Committee on Energy and Commerce has embarked upon an ambitious plan to advance the cures of the 21st century and to make them a reality for today's patients and physicians. I spent, indeed, part of August doing roundtables for the Energy and Commerce Cures initiative. One issue that came up time and again is the potential, the promise of genomic medicine to understand, diagnose, treat, and prevent illness if given the opportunity. The era of precision medicine is at hand, and doctors need to have the tools, the tools to utilize this. One of the tools is known as laboratory developed tests in order to identify best therapies for a specific patient, but burdensome regulation by the Food and Drug Administration of laboratory developed tests would prevent clinical labs from developing tests to respond to public health needs. I actually believe the Food and Drug Administration has no authority to regulate laboratory developed tests, and in fact, if they continue to do this, it will only create more roadblocks, more obstacles on our path to cures. As a physician, I am adamantly opposed to this. This week, the Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on the future of laboratory developed tests. We must work together to oppose the Food and Drug Administration's proposal, so that the work of medical professionals, which is to heal our patients using all the tools at our disposal, may finally be realized. ____________________”