Elizabeth Warren Proposes Big Pharma ‘Swear Jar’ To Fund Medical Research

WASHINGTON — In an effort to fund scientific research in the era of divided government, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is seeking to force lawbreaking pharmaceutical companies to carry a heavier burden.

Warren will introduce the Medical Innovation Act on Thursday in remarks at a conference hosted by the pro-health care reform group Families USA. Her bill would create a fund that major pharmaceutical companies must pay into when they break the law and settle lawsuits brought against them by the federal government. That fund, in turn, would prop up research accounts for the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration.

“It’s a swear jar,” Warren will say, according to remarks provided by her office. “But it’s also a simple form of accountability. Instead of letting companies that break the law get off with a slap on the wrist, the Medical Innovation Act will make sure that they pay up in a way that really makes a difference -– a difference to the health of all Americans, and a difference to all of the company’s competitors who are playing by the rules.”

Warren’s Medical Innovation Act seeks to counteract that by stipulating that the swear jar funds “will be made available only in years that annual appropriations to NIH and FDA keep pace with inflation.” In other words, appropriators can’t cut the budget and replace the hole with money from the fund.

Warren’s bill also sets conditions on what type of scientific research can be funded with the new stream of money, limiting it to things like “treatments for unmet and under-met medical needs,” the “understanding of cellular processes, protein science, immunology, genetics, or neurology,” and projects that focus “on diseases that disproportionally impact government [medical] spending.”

The Huffington Post