Trump signs ‘Right-to-Try’ bill

Washington, May 31: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a new bill titled “Right to Try” which allows terminally ill patients to seek drugs that are still experimental and not fully approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. “As I proudly sign this bill, thousands of terminally ill Americans will have the help, the hope and the fighting chance — and I think it’s going to be better than chance — that they will be cured, that they will be helped, that they will be able to be with their families for a long time, or maybe just for a longer time,” Trump said, Xinhua reported. Under the legislation, patients who are near death, or who have a disease that is likely to lead to severely premature death, have the right to seek drug treatments that remain in clinical trials after passing phase 1 of the FDA approval process. The House on Tuesday voted 250-169 in favour of the bill, which the Senate passed in August. Advocates for the bill say it opens a door for terminally ill people in states that haven’t passed such a law. Critics argue that the legislation disempowers the FDA and won’t make it easier for the patients to access these drugs, local media reported. “This issue is about real people who are terminally ill, facing the end of the line, and want to have one more shot at life,” said Starlee Coleman with the Goldwater Institute, a conservative public policy think tank based in Phoenix that supports right-to-try legislation. (IANS)