Representative Blake Moore Stands Up for Innovation

May 11, 2023

The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health on May 10 held a hearing examining government policies that inhibit medical innovation and patient access.

Utah Representative Blake Moore (R-UT), a member of the subcommittee, raised concerns about the lack of an expedited Medicare coverage pathway for breakthrough medical technologies. He specifically called out how repeal of the Trump Administration’s Medicare Coverage of Innovative Technology (MCIT) final rule caused PhotoPharmics, a Utah company, to lose an oversubscribed Series B investment round. 

The investment was to fund the final clinical trial for the company’s non-invasive, FDA Breakthrough device for Parkinson’s which has now been delayed two years.

“If the funding had gone through, we could be launching the product by year’s end, and Parkinson’s patients could find relief from debilitating motor and non-motor features which currently have no other treatment,” said Kent Savage, CEO of PhotoPharmics.

“Representative Moore rightly recognizes that actions by the executive branch and Congress can impede the development of, and patient access to, the next life-changing medical device, diagnostic or drug,” said Kelvyn Cullimore, president and CEO of BioUtah. “He’s working instead to craft policies that promote innovation and support our industry.”

Moore in March introduced legislation to establish immediate provisional Medicare coverage of FDA breakthrough devices once they’ve been cleared or approved by the FDA. The experience of PhotoPharmics is just one example of how government policies can set back innovation, robbing patients of promising new treatments and cures.

BIO submitted comments that underscored how poor policymaking, particularly, the enactment of Medicare drug price negotiations, would end up disincentivizing R&D for important medicines. Other issues that came under fire during the hearing included broadly restricting coverage for Alzheimer’s treatments, devaluing accelerated approved drugs and the role of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.