House to vote Tuesday on right-to-try bill

The U.S. House of Representatives will vote Tuesday on its right-to-try legislation, a revised version of a bill passed by the Senate in August 2017. Both bills seek to authorize using investigational treatments for terminally ill patients (see BioCentury Extra, Aug. 3, 2017).

The House's bill narrows the scope to patients with a "stage of a disease or condition in which there is a reasonable likelihood that death will occur in a matter of months," adopting language FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb recommended in a written statement at a House Energy & Commerce Committee meeting in October. It also proposes eligibility for patients with "a disease or condition that would result in significant irreversible morbidity that is likely to lead to severely premature death" (see BioCentury Extra, Oct. 2, 2017)...