People with life-threatening illnesses may eventually see improved access to experimental drugs at an earlier stage of the federal approval process, thanks to a bill that passed the House today.
By a vote of 250-169, the House passed federal “Right to Try” legislation, pushed by the Arizona-based libertarian Goldwater Foundation. This bill allows patients with what the government classifies as a “life-threatening” illness or condition to get access to drugs that have completed the first stage of clinical trial but are not yet fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Most states have such laws on the books, but the federal government itself has lagged behind them in giving citizens permission to try experimental medication sooner if they’re dying.
Read the rest at Reason.com.
TGIF: Benevolent Self-Interest
The most famous sentence in Adam Smith's 1776 treatise, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, appears in Book I, Chapter 2: It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their...
