The Tom Daschle Appointment for HHS – What’s Inside?

Former Senate leader Tom Daschle has been tapped by President-Elect Barack Obama as the new Secretary of Health and Human Services.  Here is some of the legislation Senator Dashcle either sponsored or co-sponsored related to FDA and to the pharmaceutical industry that provides some insight into positions.  Perhaps most noteworthy is the FAIR Act:

  • S.2328 – Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act of 2004 – A bill that would amend FDA to allow the importation of drugs.  It would have required manufacturers to submit a statement that explained the differences between approved drugs for the US and a related drug from a foreign country.   (co-sponsor)
  • S.2486 – Fair Advertising and Increased Research Act (FAIR) – A bill that would limit the deduction for advertisting of FDA approved prescription drugs by the manufacturer of such drugs to the level of such manufacturer's research and development expenditures.  (co-sponsor)
  • S.1638 – Healthy Kids Act – A bill that would help parents keep their children from starting tobacco use and to stop the tobacco industry to stop targeting children and to reduce overall use of tobacco.      
  • S.1976 – National Cancer Act of 2002 – This bill was aimed to fund prevention and treatment programs of the NCI, including translational cancer research and addresses issues including clinical trial participation; workforce needs; Medicare coverage; protocols and guidelines; National Program of Comprehensive Cancer Control Plans; the supply of researchers; environmental risk factors research; and colorectal cancer screening demonstration program.   

In addition, the Kaiser Family Foundation this week posted on its YouTube channel some interviews with the designee.  Unfortunately, they are not allowing the embedding of YouTube videos (which defeats their purpose in my mind), but you can get there to Part 1 and Part 2 with those links.  

 
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