Every year, Chuck commits to traveling to all62 counties in New York to meet with constituents.
On July 8th, 2019 U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer revealed that the Rochester Finger Lakes Region and Upstate New York are facing a crippling shortage of the major bladder cancer drug, Tice BCG, and called on the federal government to snap into action to address the crisis rippling across the state. Schumer explained that after receiving calls from cancer-ridden patients located in the Finger Lakes Region scrambling to get the drug, he uncovered that demand for the drug has skyrocketed and manufacturing has not been able to keep up with patients’ needs. To address this crisis, Schumer urged the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to fix a policy that leads to the discarding of partial vials of Tice BCG, which could be otherwise used to treat patients. Second, Schumer urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to identify any other options that can alleviate the drug shortage, whether that includes bringing in supplies of the drug from other countries if they have an excess, or fast-tracking approval for other strains of the drug that may also be used to treat bladder cancer. Lastly, he called on Merck to examine whether creating smaller dose vials could be a way to help more people access treatment.