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Friends' President and CEO Jeff Allen to Testify Before Congress

Friends' President and CEO Jeff Allen to Testify Before Congress

Allen Called Upon to Discuss LDT Use in Precision Medicine

Washington, DC, September 20, 2016 – Today, Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) President & CEO, Jeff Allen, PhD, will testify at a Senate hearing on the use of laboratory developed tests (LDTs) in precision medicine. The hearing, held by the Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, is titled, “Laboratory Testing in the Era of Precision Medicine.”

Allen is one of four witnesses being called to testify, alongside David S. Klimstra, MD with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Brad Spring with BD Life Sciences, and Karen L. Kaul, MD, PhD with the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.

As the committee determines the best way to address the regulation of molecular tests, Friends encourages:

  • Uniform regulatory oversight and requirements for all tests used to guide medical decision-making;
  • Standard approaches to help medical professionals compare variability between tests;
  • A regulatory process for advanced genomic screening that takes into account the pace of advancement and ensures access to high quality, reliable tests.

The hearing will take place at 430 Dirksen Senate Office Building starting at 10 am ET. A live stream of the hearing can be viewed by clicking HERE.

For more information, please read the recent Friends study published in Personalized Medicine in Oncology, titled “Use of FDA-Approved and Laboratory-Developed Tests in Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Results of a Retrospective Market Analysis.”

About Friends of Cancer Research
Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) drives collaboration among partners from every healthcare sector to power advances in science, policy and regulation that speed life-saving treatments to patients. For more information, please visit www.focr.org.