ORPHAN Cures Act
This bill amends the Drug Price Negotiation Program to better support orphan drugs (medications for rare diseases). It changes how time is calculated for orphan drugs by excluding periods when a drug was designated as an orphan from the timeline used to determine when price negotiations begin. The bill also updates definitions to allow a single drug to cover multiple rare diseases, rather than being limited to just one disease. This directly affects pharmaceutical companies developing treatments for rare conditions, giving them more time before their drugs enter the price negotiation process. The changes aim to encourage continued development of therapies for small patient populations.
Bill status
in committee
1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Oct 2023
Committee Review
Floor Vote
President
Introduced Oct 25, 2023
Last action Oct 25, 2023
Floor votes
How they voted
No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
2
Key actions
0
Committee
1
Oct 25, 2023
Committee
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
upper
Oct 25, 2023
Introduced
Introduced in Senate
upper
1 primary · 3 co-sponsors
Sponsors
Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
John Barrasso
RRepublican
Co
Roger Marshall
RRepublican
Co
Ted Budd
RRepublican
Co
Thomas R. Carper
DDemocratic
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