WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., today announced that their bipartisan legislation to help improve the lives of patients with muscular dystrophy passed the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, paving the way for a vote in the full Senate. The bill would update and improve the “Muscular Dystrophy Community Assistance, Research & Education (MD CARE) Act,” which supports medical research and policies to boost life expectancy and quality of life for muscular dystrophy patients.

“This legislation is responsible for fueling research that has helped add an average of 10 years to the lives of those with Duchenne,” Wicker said. “This is just one example of how vital the MD CARE Act is to saving lives and improving treatments for those with muscular dystrophy. Updating this law would ensure that current policy keeps up with today’s science.”

“For the 100,000 Americans currently living with muscular dystrophies, the latest treatments make a real difference in their quality of life,” Klobuchar said. “The MD CARE Act has helped support life-saving research since it passed in 2001. Today’s action brings us one step closer to continuing to advance this critical research and ensuring patients are always receiving cutting-edge treatments.”

The MD CARE Act was originally enacted in 2001 and was reauthorized in 2008. The bill supports medical research and public health policies designed to improve quality of life and boost life expectancy of children and adults diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. The "MD CARE Amendments of 2014" continues this support and works to ensure that efforts are focused on the most critical needs of doctors, patients, and researchers.