Medical Innovation Act

Medical Innovation Act

This week, I introduced the Medical Innovation Act – a common-sense proposal that could dramatically increase our nation’s investment in life-saving medical research.

Expanded funding would come from big drug companies that break the law – companies caught defrauding Medicare and Medicaid, withholding critical safety information about their drugs, marketing their drugs for uses that aren’t approved, and giving doctors kickbacks for writing prescriptions for their drugs.

When these giant law-breaking drug companies enter into major settlement agreements with the government to avoid going to trial, they would be required to reinvest a small portion of their profits into the NIH.

The Medical Innovation Act serves double duty – requiring more accountability from the biggest drug companies while giving medical research the support it deserves.

Thousands of people have already signed up to show their support for the Medical Innovation Act. Will you join them? Help us build a grassroots team to expand investment in the NIH.




Since we first announced this idea last week, we’ve seen an outpouring of support from hospitals, doctors, patient groups, and research universities. All of them want to break Congress’s stalemate on NIH funding and get back to the business of saving lives.

But we’ve also heard some grumbling from the army of lobbyists that works for some of the biggest drug companies – companies that would prefer not to pay a bigger penalty when they break the law.

Well, it’s illegal to defraud Medicare. It’s illegal to pay kickbacks to doctors. It’s illegal to hide safety data from the FDA or manufacture drugs in dirty, contaminated facilities. If they don't want to pay, then they should follow the law.

If you don’t want to put a dollar in the swear jar, then stop swearing.

Even if a few of the biggest drug companies don’t like it, I’m hopeful you and I can build broad support for this idea. Think of what more medical research could do for autism, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, ALS, diabetes, cancer, or heart disease. Think of what that could mean for our loved ones.

For generations we’ve led the world in medical innovation, and its time to renew our commitment. Sign up now to show your support for the Medical Innovation Act.

Thank you for being a part of this,

Elizabeth