‘Right to try’ drugs mean ‘right to hope’ for some | www.myajc.com

The bill would allow a doctor to petition a drug company on behalf of a dying patient with any illness to use a drug that has passed only through the first of three phases of testing required for FDA approval.

So-called “right to try” bills are sweeping the country, with bills similar to Georgia’s being sponsored in 26 states. Five states — Louisiana, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri and Michigan — passed similar laws in their 2014 legislative sessions.

Critics of the bills fear they are based on emotion rather than medicine and that they flout FDA protocol that protects people from purveyors of snake oil.

Rep. Mike Dudgeon, R-Johns Creek, who brought the Georgia bill before the House Health and Human Services Committee, said he recognized that access to a drug does not mean healing from a drug.

via ‘Right to try’ drugs mean ‘right to hope’ for some | www.myajc.com.