Thursday, August 10, 2017

U.S. Senate unanimously passes Right to Try bill

Senate passes ‘right to try’ bill to help terminally ill patients get experimental drugs - The Washington Post - Laurie McGinley:

August 2, 2017 - "The Senate on Thursday passed by unanimous consent a measure designed to make it easier for terminally ill patients to get access to experimental treatments without oversight from the Food and Drug Administration.

"The 'right-to-try' legislation has been championed by the libertarian Goldwater Institute, which has worked to pass similar legislation in 37 states. The federal version, now headed to the House, would bar the government from blocking patients from getting access to medications that have undergone only preliminary testing in humans. Patients first would have to try all other available treatments and be unable to participate in clinical trials.

"The bill would provide drug companies some legal protection if a treatment results in harm.

"'Patients with terminal diseases ought to have a right to access treatments that have demonstrated a level of safety and could potentially save their lives,' Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who wrote the bill, said in a statement after the vote....

"A previous version of the measure barred the FDA from considering any information on safety problems as part of its approval process for a drug used under right to try. The latest version was modified to allow the agency to consider such information if it is critical to determining whether the drug meets the agency's safety standards.

"The Senate's action on the right-to-try bill was part of a deal struck between Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Johnson, who had threatened to hold up a must-pass FDA funding reauthorization bill unless a vote on his legislation took place."

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/08/03/senate-passes-right-to-try-bill-to-help-terminally-ill-patients-get-experimental-drugs/?utm_term=.d90cbd0fab84
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