21st century cures act 21st century cures act the 21st century cures act is a united states law enacted by the 114th united states congress in december 2016 and then signed into law on december 13, 2016. it authorized $6.3 billion in funding, mostly for the national institutes of health. the act was supported especially by large pharmaceutical manufacturers and was opposed especially by some consumer organizations. 21st century cures actother short titleshelping families in mental health crisis reform act of 2016increasing choice, access, and quality in health care for americans actlong titlean act to accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of 21st century cures, and for other purposes.enacted bythe 114th united states congresscitationspublic lawpub. l. 114–255 (text) (pdf)legislative historyintroduced in the house as h.r. 34 by suzanne bonamici (d-or-1) on january 6, 2015committee consideration by science, space, and technology; commerce, science, and transportationpassed the house on january 7, 2015 (voice)passed the senate on october 6, 2016 (unanimous consent) with amendmenthouse agreed to senate amendment on november 30, 2016 (392-26 roll call vote 592, via clerk.house.gov) with further amendmentsenate agreed to house amendment on december 7, 2016 (94-5 roll call vote 157, via senate.gov)signed into law by president barack obama on december 13, 2016 the approval of drugs and devices would be streamlined, according to supporters, and treatments would reach the market more quickly. the argument made by opponents was that it would allow the marketing of riskier or less effective treatments by allowing the approval of drugs and devices on the basis of flimsier evidence, bypassing randomized, controlled trials. the bill incorporated the helping families in mental health crisis act, first introduced by then-congressman tim murphy, r-pa., which increased the availability of psychiatric hospital beds and established a new assistant secretary for mental health and substance use disorders. content research and drug development division a, titled "21st century cures," contains provisions related to national institutes of health funding and administration, reducing opioid abuse, medical research, and drug development. opioid epidemic