Under the current act, doctors are allowed to prescribe terminally ill patients drugs that have at least reached the stage of clinical trials. But Naomi Lopez with the Goldwater Institute told lawmakers earlier this month that advances in medicine need to be reflected in the Right to Try law.
"The original Right to Try law was a tremendous step forward, but it was written before many of today's individualized therapies existed. And as medicine has advanced, our laws must advance with that," she said.
The new proposal would permit the use of therapies that have not yet reached the trial stage and are tailored toward individual patients. While the original Right to Try movement managed to gain backing in 41 states and an eventual federal law, Kentucky Democratic Senator Karen Berg, a physician, said she worries that the new proposal doesn't specify that insurance would pay. Berg said that could create an uneven playing field.
"Basically developing a system where people who have all the money in the world can buy whatever hope they want and people that don't don't get that chance," she said.
The Right to Try for Individual Treatments Act was heard in an interim committee which does not vote to move forward legislation, but the language could find its way into a bill in next year's legislative session.