Cohen Hails Senate Passage of EUREKA Act as Part of 21st Century Cures Act

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Today the Senate passed the 21^st Century Cures Act, which included the Ensuring Useful Research Expenditures is Key for Alzheimer’s (EUREKA) Act, a bill introduced in the House by Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Congressman John Duncan (R-TN) and introduced in the Senate by Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) and others. The EUREKA section of the 21^st Century Cures Act would instruct the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support prize competitions to accelerate the discovery and development of treatments to alleviate, prevent, and cure certain diseases, like Alzheimer’s, for which there is relatively little private investment as compared to public investment. President Obama is expected to sign the 21^st Century Cures Act into law.

“I am pleased that the Senate passed the 21^st Century Cures Act, which included our EUREKA Act to help encourage innovative solutions for fighting awful diseases such as Alzheimer’s,” said Congressman Cohen. “I have been encouraged by the strong bipartisan support for the 21^st Century Cures Act, which, in addition to our EUREKA Act, includes increased funding for the NIH, Vice President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative, increased benefits for mental health patients and grants to help combat the opioid epidemic. I look forward to the President signing this bill into law.”

Congressman Cohen spoke in support of the EUREKA Act and the 21^st Century Cures Act on the House floor last week. You can watch the video here. You can read Congressman Cohen’s statement on the passage of the 21^st Century Cures Act in the House of Representatives here.