No Right To Try Law Yet

Two weeks ago we reported that the House of Representatives were scheduled to vote on the Right to Try Bill that had previously passed the Senate.  If you were betting that the House would also pass the bill, you would be …. wrong.  House Rejects Bill to Give Patients a ‘Right to Try’ Experimental Drugs explains the vote wasn’t particularly close.  “The bill was considered under special fast-track procedures that required a two-thirds majority for passage, and it fell short. When the roll was called, 259 House members supported the bill, and 140 opposed it.” Those that voted against the bill, the majority Democrats, were worried about patient harms, whether creating false hope or harming patients since the drugs wouldn’t have gone through the rigorous FDA process. The article quotes one of the House leadership that the bill will be brought back for another vote, but even so there is no guarantee of passage. There are a number of opponents to the bill, including medical personnel and patient advocaates.  “[M]ore than 75 patient advocacy groups, including the lobbying arm of the American Cancer Society, opposed the bill. .. The American Medical Association said it “does not believe that the bill will substantially improve patient access to investigational therapies.” And the American Society of Clinical Oncology, representing cancer doctors, said the bill “could do more harm than good for patients with life-threatening illnesses” because it would remove the Food and Drug Administration from the evaluation of the risks and potential benefits of some treatments.”

A House Committee will address the bill on March 19, according to a March 16, 2018 post from Bloomberg BNA Health Care Daily report so stay tuned.