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Caucus Hosts Third Annual Childhood Cancer Summit

September 20, 2012

Federal Efforts to Fight Childhood Cancer Continue
New Law Strengthens Incentives to Treat and Cure Disease

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of its ongoing efforts to raise awareness, yesterday the Congressional Childhood Cancer Caucus – co-chaired by Congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) – hosted its 3rd Annual Summit to discuss federal efforts underway to fight childhood cancer.  Representatives from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) were joined by MetronomX, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, and Brianna Comerford, a pediatric cancer survivor and national youth ambassador.

“Childhood cancer patients, survivors and their families all across this country deserve to know that no disease is too rare for us to fight,” said Congressman McCaul.  “Through collaboration between government, patient advocates and the private sector, we can eradicated cancer as a threat to all children and focus our instead on improving the lives of pediatric cancer survivors.  I am so proud that the Creating Hope Act was signed into law this year, giving new hope to the many victims of this terrible disease.”

“I am honored to join my colleagues across the aisle in fighting a disease that affects so many American families, and Congressman McCaul has been on the front lines of this issue,” said Congressman Van Hollen.  “The Creating Hope Act is the first step, and we will continue to make childhood cancer a national priority and invest in biomedical research and drug development. We have made real progress in the battle against childhood cancer and we can’t lose our momentum now.”

The Creating Hope Act, included in the FDA Safety and Innovation Act, was signed into law in July. It provides a framework for a new program at FDA to encourage pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs for rare pediatric diseases such as childhood cancer. Starting next month, a company that receives approval for a new drug to treat a pediatric rare disease will receive a priority review voucher, allowing for the expedited review of another one of its drugs. At the event, MetronomX, Inc. discussed how the Creating Hope Act will make it more cost effective to develop new childhood cancer treatments.

This year's Childhood Cancer Summit panelists included:

  • Dr. Greg Reaman, Associate Director, Office of Hematology and Oncology Products, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
  • Dr. Javed Khan, Head of the Oncogenomics Section and Senior Investigator in the Pediatric Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute (NCI)

To read the presentations from this year's Summit panelists, please click on the links below.

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