President Donald Trump on Thursday pushed Congress to pass a bill allowing terminally ill patients to try experimental treatments, following his State of the Union, in which he openly called for "right to try" legislation.
"People who are terminally ill should not have to go from country to country to seek a cure— I want to give them a chance right here at home. It's time for the Congress to give these wonderful, incredible Americans the 'right to try,'" Trump said during his first State of the Union address on Tuesday.
On Thursday, at the GOP retreat in West Virginia, Trump said in his address: "I have known people like this. They travel all over the world to try and find a cure, but it will be years before [drugs] come on to the market," according to the Washington Examiner.
Although the Food and Drug Administration already has a "compassionate use" program, called expanded access, that approves experimental drugs for patients who fit certain requirements, "right to try" would allow patients with terminal illnesses and no other options to bypass the agency.
Thirty-eight states already have enacted "right to try" legislation, according to Fortune.
Vice President Mike Pence has been a vocal proponent for "right to try," having tweeted about it less than two weeks before Trump's State of the Union.
However, former FDA Commissioner David Kessler, who led the agency in the early 90's, warned against it in a statement to Politico.
"If you really care about patients who have serious and life-threating disease, and you want to get drugs that work, do the clinical trial and do the clinical trial expeditiously and then the patient will know whether to take that drug or some other drugs," he said.
"Otherwise we are living in the world of snake oil."
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