[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1179 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1179

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that biotechnology 
   firms meeting small business standards are critical to the United 
 States, its people and its economy because they create new medicines, 
  services, and jobs and meet unmet needs related to populations and 
   patients with infectious and chronic diseases, including those of 
                   medically underserved populations.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 12, 2010

  Mr. Davis of Illinois submitted the following resolution; which was 
            referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

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                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that biotechnology 
   firms meeting small business standards are critical to the United 
 States, its people and its economy because they create new medicines, 
  services, and jobs and meet unmet needs related to populations and 
   patients with infectious and chronic diseases, including those of 
                   medically underserved populations.

Whereas small biotechnology firms have developed intellectual property that is 
        of value to the health and well-being of the people in the United States 
        and the world;
Whereas small biotechnology firms deserve a comprehensive, prompt, direct, and 
        effective review of their products and processes by all Federal agencies 
        of jurisdiction;
Whereas HIV/AIDS, the most virulent strains of tuberculosis, Hepatitis C, 
        pandemic diseases, and other life threatening conditions, including 
        cardiovascular conditions, stroke, cancer, sickle cell, neurological 
        conditions, gastrointestinal, infectious, autoimmune, and mental illness 
        diseases, are an increasing threat to the life, safety, and the fiscal 
        balance of State and local health public health organizations, 
        especially in areas with high proportions of underserved and under-
        resourced populations;
Whereas over 1,100,000 persons in the United States are living with HIV/AIDS, 
        including a large number of racial and ethnic minorities;
Whereas there is a need to encourage therapies and new drug development to treat 
        the unmet medical needs of patients with debilitating conditions and 
        life-threatening diseases, including those in medically underserved 
        communities;
Whereas new antibiotic and biologic medicines for these infections and diseases 
        will not only save lives, but provide cost savings vitally important to 
        the improvement of the Nation's health and the reduction of health care 
        costs; and
Whereas small business biotechnology firms need Federal assistance to 
        commercialize products related to new and promising technologies, 
        including therapeutics for drug resistant pathogens, new approaches to 
        antibiotics based on defensin mimetics, adenosine-based synthetic blood 
        substitutes, allogeneic cellular immune therapy, peptide-based and 
        nanoparticle-based therapeutic HIV vaccines, HIV vaccine adjuvants, 
        immune-based therapies including irreversible pepsin fraction, 
        cytokines, and hormones, innovative clinical interventions for adverse, 
        debilitating drug related events such as peripheral neuropathy, HIV 
        antiviral therapies, and processes including lentiviral-based gene 
        therapy, antiviral hyperactivation limiting therapeutics, autologous 
        dendritic cell therapy, Pyrimidinedione-based NNRTIs, dual tropic CCR5 
        antagonists, point-of-care rapid diagnostics, and therapeutic nutrition: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) recognizes that the public deserves the safest, most 
        effective, and efficient processes in regards to saving the 
        lives of people living in the United States with infectious and 
        chronic diseases;
            (2) supports the domestic development and commercialization 
        of biotechnology research by firms meeting small business size 
        standards and collaborations with university-based 
        biotechnology research facilities;
            (3) supports and seeks to encourage the advancement of 
        United States-based commercialization of point of care 
        therapeutics and diagnostics by emerging and small business 
        biotechnology firms for domestic and global use;
            (4) recognizes the need to coordinate existing public 
        funding to help small business biotechnology firms whose 
        products may be lost due to domestic economic conditions, and 
        fund critical paths for small biotechnology drug development 
        and for regulatory review and commercial approval;
            (5) encourages the development of a formalized, national 
        strategic framework to facilitate technological advancements in 
        improving the commercialization processes for small business 
        biotechnology firms;
            (6) wishes to promote and encourage the creation of 
        incentives for small business biotechnology companies that 
        perform basic and applied research through the development and 
        commercialization of biotechnology products and processes and 
        their diffusion into national and local economies to improve 
        the quality of life of people in the United States;
            (7) encourages the development of a comprehensive approach 
        to describing disease populations and the production of 
        comprehensive research programs that are current with evolving 
        biotechnology and the unmet needs of diverse patient 
        populations; and
            (8) encourages the Office of the Secretary of the 
        Department of Health and Human Services to develop a Federal 
        Biotechnology Coordinating Council representative of small 
        business biotechnology companies, research facilities, and 
        Federal agencies with a strategic initiative to facilitate 
        development and preserve these small business biotechnology 
        firms and coordinate resources and funding mechanisms for this 
        purpose.
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