NORWICH – The pharmaceutical industry needs help from the federal government to keep pace with the rest of the world in terms of medical research, according to U.S. Representative Richard Hanna.

Rep. Hanna (R-22nd District) was in Norwich on Friday to meet with business officials at Norwich Pharmaceuticals, an Alvogen company and a major employer in the Norwich area. The company would be among those to benefit from a federal initiative to increase funding for research to treat and cure rare and intractable diseases.

“If you look at Europe and other places around the world, you see that there are countries that are heavily investing in these kinds of value-added industries. We need to do it here too,” said Hanna. “We get behind as a country in terms of basic research when we don’t spend as much as other countries ... What we really need to do is stay ahead. If we’re not ahead in pharmaceuticals, we’re already behind.”

Hanna advocated for the 21st Century Cures Act, a bill that House lawmakers passed in July but still needs to be approved by the Senate. The bill would provide an extra $2 billion for pharmaceutical research, thus allowing the National Institutes of Health the ability to conduct further research of diseases without a cure – diseases like cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and Lyme disease.

Legislators say the bill is already paid for without adding to the national debt. Funding comes from the sale of national oil reserve overstock.