The House will vote next week on the Right to Try Act, which would give terminally ill patients access to possibly life-saving experimental medicine.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., made the announcement Thursday morning, which comes nearly two months after the House passed a different version of right to try, but could not get it through the Senate. The Senate unanimously passed its version of the bill in August. That version was introduced by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., and is the one the House is now poised to vote on.
“Families across the country receive the devastating news of a diagnosis every day and next week the House will vote to give seriously ill patients the right to try experimental treatments when there are no other options left,” said McCarthy in a statement. “This will not only offer a chance for the patient to possibly find treatment but could open possibilities to help others do the same.”
“I am proud we will send this historic legislation to President Trump and offer hope to individuals and families facing dire circumstances,” McCarthy added.
The bill would prevent the government from blocking patients’ access to drugs and medications that have only undergone preliminary testing by humans. Individuals must try all other possible treatments before being able to try with those medications.
Additionally, the legislation would give drug manufacturers and those involved in testing the drug on humans liability protections if results of a drug or treatment on a patient went awry.
The House vote will come nearly four months after Trump mentioned right to try in his State of the Union address in January.
“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,” Trump said in the speech. “It is time for the Congress to give these wonderful Americans the right to try.”
A version of right to try has passed in 38 states by overwhelming support, including Indiana in 2015 when Vice President Mike Pence, then the state’s governor, signed it into law.
The House previously passed a version of right to try in late March largely along party lines, but it failed in the Senate when Johnson tried to pass the bill by unanimous consent.
