Each year, 200,000 newborns in the United States are admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit, but the treatments available to these babies are limited. While the number of newborns needing intensive care has increased, treatment options have stagnated, leaving us with a worrisome treatment gap that continues to grow. Currently, more than 90 percent of the medications used on infants are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is unacceptable. This is why I recently introduced the Promoting Life-Saving New Therapies for Neonates Act, H.R. 2641.
For far too long newborns have lacked the quality care that is crucial to their health. With prematurity being the number one cause of newborn mortality, something needs to be done. This bill will close the treatment gap for newborns by incentivizing research for effective drugs and ensuring that these new drugs target the most critical needs of neonates. Parents have enough to worry about after having a child. They should not also have to worry about their child getting the care they need and deserve.
With so little research being done to help improve neonatal care, doctors sometimes use drugs that are intended for adults. They will adjust the dosages, but adjusting the dosages doesn’t help in some cases and can sometimes make things worse. Infants respond differently than adults to these drugs, and treating them as “tiny adults,” as one doctor put it, can be harmful.
Current incentives to help close the treatment gap have not worked as planned, which is why this bill is important. Due to the numerous challenges posed by the age group, many doctors have not wanted to take on the possible risks that come with conducting clinical trials. It’s also more challenging to find patients in this age group that are available for study at any given time compared to other age groups, and the conditions needed to make trials effective are not found in children and adults.
Creating more incentives for research into effective drugs that target the most critical neonatal needs gives children access to reliable health care they need and parents the ease of mind they deserve. I will work hard to make sure that this bill is passed in both the House and the Senate and signed by the president. Now is the time to take action.
7 comments:
So Billy Lard, you must have some pharmaceutical lobbyist in your pocket now. Is ALEC in Vegas panning out for you? At least they should be paying for your buffets right?
Good job Congressman Long!!
The people of SW MO should be proud of you!!
Harvey Hutchinson 303-522-6622 voice&text
Sounds like some drug company welfare to me.
Good thing the drug companies donate to folks like Blubba! That makes it a-oK for them to be getting gubmint checks!
Not like them food stamp chiselers who don't pay no donations!
Sounds to me like some anonymous cowards like to kill babies; not just the unborn, but the infants as well
Why don't you try Syria?
Harvey Hutchinson 303-522-6622 voice&text
Sounds to me like Anonymous cowards are not happy enough killing unborn babies; they'd like to kill infants as well
Harvey Hutchinson 303-522-6622 voice&text
Harvey,
Damn, did somebody piss in your Cheerios this morning? Trumpcare considers a baby born with heart defects, a pre-existing condition, and that baby would never be insured for treatment for any condition related to that heart defect. To top that off, you stupidly accuse others of wanting to kill babies, but your own damn party is doing just that!
Killing babies?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/texas-maternal-mortality-rate-highest-in-developed-world-a7204016.html
"While around 99 per cent of maternal deaths occur in developing countries, the US has a very high number for a developed nation. Other countries where maternal mortality increased during that same time period included Afghanistan, Botswana and Chad.
Experts say that in the US, race and poverty play powerful roles in determining who is more vulnerable to maternal health crises. Poverty is tightly linked to the issue, along with depression, asthma, obesity and diabetes."
That's Red Murrica for you!
Shall we try whistle up our resident nutter?
In Texas, the first attack on Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics came in 2011, when politicians cut family-planning grants by 66 per cent across the state. The money that remained was directed toward community health centres and county health departments that provide more comprehensive care.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this year found that one impact was an increase in births among low-income women who lost access to affordable and effective birth control.
Post a Comment