[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 42 (Thursday, March 13, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H2369]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   JOSH HARDY'S STRUGGLE WITH CANCER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
acknowledge a story of hardship and compassion. Josh Hardy, a young boy 
from Fredericksburg, Virginia, survived a battle with cancer when he 
was just 9 months old. Today, at the age of 7, he is currently 
suffering from a life-threatening infection acquired during his cancer 
treatment at St. Jude Children's Hospital.
  A pharmaceutical company, Chimerix, produces the medication Josh's 
doctors believe could help save his life. Unfortunately, the drug was 
still in trial testing, and the company has been unable to provide 
access due to the number of requests for the drug and the rate of its 
production in the testing stage.
  Physicians at St. Jude's Hospital and members of Josh's family 
pleaded for Josh to obtain access to the drug. Last Friday, Matt Hardy, 
Josh's uncle, of Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, a constituent of mine, 
contacted my office to request our support in seeing if the drug could 
get approved.
  Josh's story has become widely known across the country. Yesterday, 
Chimerix agreed to provide Josh access to their environmental antiviral 
drug for his treatment. This small business should be commended for 
their compassion and making tough decisions. We hope they can continue 
with expedience to bring their product to market in order to help 
others like Josh.
  Mr. Speaker, through these tough times, our thoughts and prayers 
remain with Josh, his family, and the countless individuals committed 
to making lives better through cutting edge medical research.

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