Analysis | The Health 202: The 21st Century Cures Act helped accelerate covid vaccines, and lawmakers say their new version could do more.

with Paige Winfield Cunningham

The U.S. has gotten a crash course over the past 18 months in just how important the biomedical research pipeline can be, as scientists turned years of basic science research into highly effective vaccines against the coronavirus in record-time.

Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.) are pushing a bill that would build on the 21st Century Cures Act, a major overhaul in biomedical research passed in 2016 designed to speed up the pipeline for medical innovation.

DeGette and Upton have dubbed their new...