House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Fred Upton (R-Mich.) on Cure Strategy

Upton statement on committee priorities for the 114th Congress

ISSUED BY

Fred Upton

November 5, 2014

Earlier this year my Democratic colleague Diana DeGette joined me in launching the 21st Century Cures initiative with the goal of accelerating the pace of new cures and treatments. We have heard from patients, researchers, care givers, and innovators for the past several months about the tremendous opportunities we have in the United States to find treatments for the thousands of diseases without them and close the gap between the science of cures and how we regulate them. In the coming weeks we will continue to advance this initiative and work with our colleagues in Congress and the administration to deliver hope to patients and loved ones all across the country.  

Today is the Centennial of the birth of Dr. Jonas Salk--it's nice to see Google taking note

Fred Upton Leads a Cure Strategy for the 21st Century

My piece for Breitbart News. 

The Same Issues as the AIDS Crisis, three decades later

This article appears on the front page of the hard-copy of The Washington Post today. 

Three decades ago, it was AIDS.  Now, it's a myriad of illnesses.  And once again, individuals, and their families, are fighting off deadly diseases.  And once again, the bureaucracy is on the other side.  

And curiously, the Post seems to be on the side of the bureaucrats.  That is, the side of "regular order," the side of trusting the system to do the right thing.     Very curious.  

What we really need is a wide-open system of compassionate use, plus maximum experimentation.   That's how problems get solved the fastest.  

And while it would be nice if our leaders, including within the bureaucracy, had such vision, it's nice that somebody, at least, has it.    As the AIDS activists proved, vision from the bottom up can get the job done--or at least push the ball forward.  

"Infectious Causation of Disease: An Evolutionary Perspective"

Fascinating, important, and provocative piece by Cochran, Ewald, and Cochran, first published in 2000, in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine.