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U.S. Senate and House negotiators are in final stages of talks toward legislation that would boost funding for the National Institutes of Health, provide states with $1 billion for opioid-addiction treatment and improve access to mental-health treatment. The bill, which is likely to become completed in the next few days, will also have potentially significant impact on the regulation of medical devices and drugs. The House is scheduled to vote on some version of the legislation as early as Wednesday. ... People familiar with the talks, however, said that over the weekend there are major provisions to be hammered out, especially regarding Food and Drug Administration regulation of drugs and devices. One of those people said on Saturday that there was still the possibility that this emerging deal would fall apart. (Burton, 11/26)

The House of Representatives will vote Wednesday on a long-stalled package of biomedical innovation bills along with a vote on whether to add state funding to fight opioid misuse. A reworked 21st Century Cures Act was released over the holiday weekend by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich) and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).  The Cures Act as now proposed includes funding for President Barack Obama's precision medicine initiative, the cancer "moonshot" effort and Alzheimer's research. The act creates innovation accounts for the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration that would be replenished annually. (Muchmore, 11/27)

House and Senate leaders announced late Friday night that they had finally hammered out a deal on landmark legislation designed to speed federal approval of new drugs and devices and boost funding of medical research. But what Republican lawmakers call the “final” version of the 21st Century Cures Act is actually still in negotiation with Senate Democrats, a Senate health committee senior aide told STAT on Sunday. Despite the potential for challenges in the Senate, the House will push ahead and vote Wednesday on the $6.3 billion legislation. (Kaplan, 11/26)

Lawmakers have reached a deal to consider a medical innovation bill and a mental health reform measure on the House floor next week. The bills will be combined into a single package and tucked into the shell of a suspender measure that already passed both chambers, enabling lawmakers to expedite consideration of the legislation. The compromise comes after bill sponsors have been pushing for well over a year to get both measures over the finish line in Congress. (Zanona and Sullivan, 11/25)

The House plans to vote Wednesday on a $6.3 billion bill aimed at speeding federal approval of drugs and medical devices and boosting biomedical research. The legislation, a priority for congressional leaders in the lame-duck session, seeks to streamline how federal regulators assess the safety of new treatments and let them reach markets more quickly. It provides new money for the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration, including funding for the White House's cancer moonshot and precision medicine initiatives. (11/26)

The 21st Century Cures Act now being refined by the lame-duck Congress is one of the most-lobbied health care bills in recent history, with nearly three lobbyists working for its passage or defeat for every member on Capitol Hill. More than 1,455 lobbyists representing 400 companies, universities and other organizations pushed for or against a House version of a Cures bill this congressional cycle, according to federal disclosure forms compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. (Lupkin, 11/28)