A provision in a major medical research package that would have weakened the Sunshine Act, which discloses payments to doctors and healthcare companies, has been dropped.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Tuesday that the provision he objected to was removed from a final version of the 21st Century Cures Act announced on Saturday. Grassley had objected to a quick passage of the bipartisan package unless the provision was dropped.
The part of the bill targeted the Sunshine Act, which requires drug and device companies to report payments to doctors and teaching hospitals for things like going to a medical conference. A part of the Cures legislation would have weakened reporting requirements for drug and device companies for items such as speaker fees.
“This is good news for transparency and the public,” Grassley said in a statement Tuesday. “Billions of dollars in drug and device company payments to doctors have been disclosed for public benefit. With drug prices through the roof, the way drug and device makers spend money is of more public interest than ever.”
Grassley, a co-author of the Sunshine Act, dropped his objection to the cures package, but it still faces opposition from several Democrats.
Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called the bill a handout to drugmakers because it speeds up approval of new drugs and devices.
The bill would provide $6.8 billion in new funding for medical research and would include several provisions to speed up the adoption of new cures.
The House is scheduled to vote Wednesday to include mental health reform in the final version, and then it will go to the Senate.
