Four Capitol Hill lawmakers—two U.S. Senators and two U.S. Representatives, one from each party—have formed the bipartisan Congressional Personalized Medicine Caucus, with the goal of educating Congress and the public about the benefits of earlier detection, targeted treatment, and improved prevention strategies in personalized medicine.
The Caucus has won support from the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC), which is partnering with the bipartisan group to hold an introductory briefing on February 26.
Forming the caucus are Sens. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), as well as Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Tom Emmer (R-MN).
“The co-chairs should be commended for convening a bipartisan group of lawmakers who are committed to advancing personalized medicine to improve patient care and make our health system more efficient,” PMC President Edward Abrahams said in a statement. “PMC looks forward to supporting the caucus as it seeks to accelerate progress toward this new and promising era in health care.”
The PMC cited the benefits to healthcare systems of greater effectiveness and efficiency resulting from personalized medicine, adding that patients benefit through improved outcomes, targeted treatments, and reduced need for hospitalization.
Those results, the coalition added, will follow healthcare providers recommending lifestyle changes to patients with molecular risk factors, detecting diseases at earlier stages, and matching small groups of sick patients to molecularly-guided therapies intended to address the root causes of disease.
“Through the Personalized Medicine Caucus, we will take steps to nurture scientific advancements that may reverse the genetic and molecular causes of rare and common diseases, bringing new hope to American patients and lasting benefits to our health care system,” Scott said.
Swalwell added: “As genomic sequencing becomes less expensive, opportunities increase to diagnose patients sooner and treat them more effectively. This caucus will go a long way toward ensuring that all American patients benefit from these and other transformative scientific developments in personalized medicine.”
The briefing has been scheduled from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET in the North Congressional Meeting Room of the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center (CVC Room 268).
