The SMA Treatment Acceleration Act authorizes federal funding to support the efforts of the national non-profit organizations such as Families of SMA that are investing substantial private funding into finding a treatment for SMA. Passage of this landmark legislation will enable scientific investigators to mount national clinical trials to demonstrate whether potential treatments are safe and effective for SMA patients. Specifically, the bill authorizes federal funding in order to:

1. Upgrade and unify the existing SMA clinical trials sites and networks to establish a national clinical trials network for SMA.
2. Establish a national Data Coordinating Center to provide expert assistance and advice to SMA clinical trials sites.
3. Expand and intensify federally-supported pre-clinical and translational research programs related to SMA.
4. Enhance and provide ongoing support to the existing SMA patient registry in order to expand research on the epidemiology of SMA.
5. Establish an SMA Coordinating Committee, consisting of representatives from relevant government agencies and the public (including researchers, clinicians, and affected individuals and families), that is tasked with coordinating all government activities relating to SMA, serving as the principal advisor to government agency heads on matters relating to SMA, conducting a study that identifies barriers to the development of drugs for treating SMA, and providing the report findings and recommended legislative solutions to Congress.
6. Establish a trans-agency cooperative research initiative at the National Institutes of Health to ensure collaboration across multiple Institutes regarding research related to SMA.
7. Require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to collaborate with the Food and Drug Administration and the Coordinating Committee to make recommendations for improving and expanding existing industry incentives to promote SMA drug development.
8. Establish and implement a program for providing information and education on SMA to health professionals and the general public related to advances in the diagnosis and treatment of SMA and the provision of care to SMA patients.