President Trump Signs ‘Right To Try Act,’ Allowing Patients to Seek Alternative Treatment
On May 30th, President Trump signed a monumental bill into law that fundamentally changes the treatment process for those with terminal illnesses. The Right To Try Act will allow patients who are terminally ill to try experimental treatments without government intervention after all other options have been exhausted. However, the patient first needs approval from their doctor and the drug manufacturer. Before this law, a patient was required to apply to the FDA for “compassionate use” of an experimental treatment, in hopes of being allowed to have the opportunity to save their life.
Critics of the legislation have noted that the bill undermines the role of the FDA to screen harmful drugs from reaching the general public. However, as FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb had stated, the FDA already approves 99 percent of cases when people apply for experimental treatment. Other critics have argued that the bill gives patients “false hope,”since pharmaceutical companies are not required to approve the patients’ use of the experimental drugs. However, the FDA website statesthat the FDA cannot force a pharmaceutical company to provide an experimental drug and that a company reserves the right to turn down a request from the FDA for a compassionate use treatment.
Proponents of the new bill argue that it provides a faster, more efficient means for patients to receive the treatment that could save their lives, as in the case of 83-year-old Bob Gadshall, a 20 year member of the Pennsylvania State Legislature who is a success story of the saving potentiality of experimental treatments. The Right To Try act can be read here at the official website of the US Congress.On May 30th, President Trump signed a monumental billinto law that fundamentally changes the treatment process for those with terminal illnesses. The Right To Try Act will allow patients who are terminally ill to try experimental treatments without government intervention after all other options have been exhausted. However, the patient first needs approval from their doctor and the drug manufacturer. Before this law, a patient was required to apply to the FDA for “compassionate use” of an experimental treatment, in hopes of being allowed to have the opportunity to save their life.
Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstock/shironosev
Publication date: June 1, 2018
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