United States · Bill · HR
H.R. 3737 (112th)
ULTRA
Introduced
20 December 2011
Last action
—
Status
Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
Sponsors
—
Subjects
Discovery layer
Source updated
14 August 2025
Summary
Unlocking Lifesaving Treatments for Rare-Diseases Act or ULTRA - Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to approve an application for a drug as a fast track product using a surrogate endpoint, based on the existence of reasonable scientific data that support and qualify the relevance of such endpoint to the disease state and treatment, if the Secretary: (1) makes an initial determination that the drug is eligible for approval as a drug designated for a rare disease or condition (orphan drug) and as a fast track product, and (2) determines that the drug is a treatment for a disease or condition that affects a small number of patients in the United States. Prohibits the Secretary from requiring clinical treatment or other historical clinical data on such endpoint as a prerequisite to assessment of that endpoint if such scientific data is not available. Directs the Secretary to issue guidance providing details and options for qualifying surrogate endpoints without clinical data, taking into account and balancing: (1) the unmet need served by the drug and the adverse effects of the rare disease or condition on quality and length of life, (2) the very low likelihood that clinical data would exist or that clinical studies would be completed to support a surrogate endpoint due to the small size of the U.S. patient population and other significant barriers inherent in performing such studies due to the prevalence of the disease or related factors, and (3) the full scope of available basic scientific data and information that the Secretary deems reasonably predictive of a clinical benefit in the absence of clinical data.
This text is taken from the official record. PoliticalRepo does not editorialize.
Timeline
No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.
Votes
No vote records are attached yet.
Versions
No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.
Documents
3 official files
Introduced in House (text)
Introduced in House (text)
Introduced in House · EN · 20 December 2011
Introduced in House (PDF)
Introduced in House · EN · 20 December 2011
Introduced in House
summary · EN · 20 December 2011
Sponsors
No sponsors or actors listed by the source.
Related records
No cross-record relationships stored yet.
Sources
PoliticalRepo is an index and interpretation layer, not the authoritative legal source.
- Official source: https://www.congress.gov/bill/112th-congress/house-bill/3737
- Open data entity: https://api.congress.gov/v3/bill/112/hr/3737