Let FDA Approve Drugs For Limited Populations

Specifically, the Promise for Antibiotics and Therapeutics for Health (PATH) Act would allow the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve antibiotics for limited populations of patients with serious and life-threatening bacterial infections that are resistant to current treatments — in other words, the types of antibiotics that could treat superbugs such as MCR-1 and others that will surely follow. This “limited-population antibacterial drug” (LPAD) approach has broad and bipartisan, bicameral support, and was approved overwhelmingly by the House of Representatives last year as a part of the 21st Century Cures Act, known as the ADAPT Act. On April 6, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions plans to advance a companion measure, called the PATH Act.