Supporters of a bill to let terminally ill patients bypass the Food and Drug Administration to get access to experimental treatments are pressing for a House vote quickly.
Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., wrote a letter signed by 40 lawmakers to House GOP leadership requesting a vote as soon as possible on the bill. The letter comes as President Trump made a public push for right-to-try legislation during the State of the Union.
“What we cannot accept is inaction, endless delays, and half-measures,” the letter said.
The legislation already passed the Senate last year and now it sits before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has not yet scheduled a vote on it.
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., has said he is working on a bipartisan version for it.
There are right-to-try laws in 38 states but they are rendered inert because they cannot circumvent federal law.
The federal legislation has gotten a major push from the White House and outside conservative groups.
Trump said during his first State of the Union address last week “people who are terminally ill should not have to go from country to country to seek a cure.”
Vice President Mike Pence, who signed a right-to-try bill while governor of Indiana, also tweeted a few weeks ago that the legislation is about “restoring hope” for patients.
So far, House leadership has not pushed for a vote on the bill, but Biggs and Fitzpatrick want them to swiftly bring it up to the House floor.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the lead sponsor of the Senate bill, said if the bill is put on the floor of the House, “it is gonna pass.”
Johnson said he was open to tweaks on the legislation, but only up to a point.
“I want to make sure it maintains the freedom for as many individuals in that situation as possible,” he said Monday.
The legislation lets a terminally ill patient get access to an experimental drug that has gone through the first of three phases of clinical trials.
The FDA already has a program called “compassionate use” which does the same thing. However, the agency and an expert on an advisory board must first approve the request.
The agency has said that it approves 99 percent of the requests it receives and that it typically gets 1,000 requests a year under the program.
Patient safety advocates have charged that right-to-try legislation will open patients up to unsafe treatments that have little to no chance of working.
Neither “compassionate use” nor the legislation requires a drug maker to provide the experimental product.
