Right to Try Fails in the House

The United States Senate previously approved legislation that would allow the terminally ill to access experimental drugs, commonly known as “Right to Try.” Recently, however, the United States House of Representatives failed to pass the legislation, with a vote of 259 to 140. House Republicans tried to pass the bill under a suspension of the House rules, which requires any bill to take two-thirds support in order to pass, instead of a simple majority. President Donald Trump previously showed his support for the bill in his State of the Union address in January 2018. “People who are terminally ill should not have to go from country to country to seek a cure,” he said. “I want to give them a chance right here at home. It’s time for Congress to give these wonderful, incredible Americans the right to try.” The House and Senate bills would establish a new pathway providing access to unapproved prescription drugs for certain patients who had exhausted other treatment options. Under the Senate bill, patients with “a life-threatening disease or condition” could obtain unapproved drugs, but eligibility under the House bill was more narrowly defined. To qualify under the House bill, a patient would have to have some kind of terminal illness: a condition that is likely to cause death “within a matter of months” or “irreversible morbidity that is likely to lead to severely premature death.” The patient would have to provide informed consent in writing. The...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs