Hagan Pushes Bill To Accelerate Drug Approval

Senator Kay Hagan toured UNC Children's Hospital yesterday as part of a push for her bill that would streamline approval of treatments for serious and rare diseases.

Hagan says the Food and Drug Administration needs to find faster ways to get treatments to patients suffering from rare diseases.

Kay Hagan: To have a clinical trial with a thousand patients for some of these rare diseases would take 20 years. And if they can come up with an accelerated approval process where they can have a trial with a much much smaller group of patients, then that's one way.

Hagan says insuring the safety of drugs would still be a top priority, and more comprehensive trials would continue after a treatment is fast-tracked. The Democratic lawmaker calls the bill the most bipartisan one she's ever worked on and she says she's confident it will pass when it's brought up for a vote soon.