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Washington urged to support child health research

WASHINGTON, Jul 26 (Reuters Health) - Congress needs to immediately renew the law encouraging drug companies to test their products on children, and the Bush administration should fully implement a law passed last year aimed at increasing research on diseases affecting children, a coalition urged at a Capitol Hill news conference Thursday.

The Coalition for Children's Health 2001 includes 14 organizations, including United Cerebral Palsy, the Arthritis Foundation and the FRAXA Research Foundation.

"Pediatric research has traditionally been an underfunded medical field," said David Busby of the FRAXA Research Foundation, which supports studies of the genetic disorder fragile X syndrome. "It is critical that the federal government become more proactive supporting research and encouraging the private sector to take a greater interest in this area of medical research."

The coalition's top priority is passage of the "Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act," which would reauthorize the law that provides drugmakers with an additional 6 months of market exclusivity for a drug if they conduct clinical trials on children. Without further action, the law expires at the end of this year.

In addition to renewing the law for 6 years, the bill would also address the law's lack of incentives for the testing of drugs whose patents have already expired. The bill would create a government fund, starting at $200 million the first year, to fund studies of off-patent medications in children.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is tentatively scheduled to vote on the bill next week.

The coalition's other priority is implementation of the so-called Pediatric Research Initiative included in the 2000 Children's Health Act. Coalition members said they are concerned that the Bush administration has been slow to implement key provisions of the initiative--including the launch of a long-range study of the environmental factors affecting US children's health and development.

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