On December 13th, President Barack Obama signed the 21st Century Cures Act into law. The legislation was introduced by Representative Fred Upton (R-MI) in July 2015 and was heavily revised before ultimately securing bipartisan support. The law is intended to advance biomedical research, streamline the approval process for drugs and medical devices, enhance mental health and substance abuse services, and promote the secure exchange of health information.
The legislation designates $6.3 billion in funding, including $4.8 billion for the NIH to support the Precision Medicine Initiative and Cancer Moonshot Initiative, and $1 billion to address the opioid epidemic. The funding is scheduled to be allocated on an annual basis, but the release of funds will have to be approved by Congress each year as part of the appropriations process. On December 9th, Congress passed a continuing resolution that will fund Cures Act initiatives for FY 2017.
Please see the attached document for a summary of key provisions of the law. The full text of the final legislation is available here.