Obama signs bipartisan FDA bill

{mosads}Both the House and Senate moved the FDA legislation quickly and with broad bipartisan support.

Lawmakers met their goal of sending the bill to Obama’s desk before the July 4 recess — and before the Supreme Court’s healthcare decision, which could have dragged the FDA bill into a morass of symbolic amendments.

The FDA bill modifies part of Obama’s healthcare law by filling out the detauls a user fee program for the drug class known as biosimilars — comparable to generic versions of complex drugs known as biologics.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius praised the bipartisan effort as Obama signed the legislation Monday.

“S. 3187 is the culmination of the work of the administration and Congress, in partnership with patients, the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, the clinical community, and other stakeholders, to provide the Food and Drug Administration with the tools needed to continue to bring drugs and devices to market safely and quickly and promote innovation in the biomedical industry, and to help secure the jobs supported by drug and device development,” she said in a statement.