2012/04/13

For Anyone With Children or Anyone Who Loves a Child

Da Goddess @ 02:24

You never know when or if it could be a child you love, so act now.

April 12, 2012

Dear Childhood Cancer Advocate,

The Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA) and Pediatric Research Equity Act (PREA) are two critical federal laws that provide incentives and requirements for pharmaceutical companies to test their drugs for use in children. BPCA and PREA expire on October 1, 2012, and Congress is currently working to reauthorize these laws in advance of their sunset date.

While BPCA and PREA have made significant research advances in how medicines can be used in children, the laws have had a very modest impact on the development of new drugs for children with cancer. In fact, PREA itself has had no meaningful impact. We need your help to modify this law so that it can help children with cancer.

Under current PREA law, companies are required to study their drugs in children only if the drug is developed for a disease that occurs in both adults in children. Because common adult cancers – such as breast, colon, lung and prostate – typically do not affect children, companies receive waivers so they are not required to study these drugs in children with cancer even though they may hold great promise.

Children’s Cause for Cancer Advocacy (CCCA) is advocating for a proposal to strengthen PREA so that it can be used to encourage companies to evaluate whether their new cancer drugs can provide better and more effective treatment options for children with cancer.

Please take action today by contacting your Representatives and Senators to urge them to strengthen PREA for children with cancer. To see the language proposed for PREA that will advance therapies for children with cancer, and to send a letter to your Members of Congress, see the form below.

Thank you for adding your voice to this critical effort to help improve treatments for our children.

The CCCA Team

a message to your Representatives and Senators now!

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.