Right-to-try drugs only sound like a good thing

This fall the House of Representatives is likely to take up legislation passed by the Senate that gives terminally ill patients the right to try unproven, experimental drugs that are not yet on the market. Thirty-seven states have already passed similar legislation.
    All this may sound like terrific news for very sick patients with few or no treatment options left, but the issue deserves a much deeper look thanks to its potential impact on people’s pocketbooks and health.
    “The public has no idea this is not a good thing,” says Alison Bateman-House, a medical ethicist at New York University’s Langone Medical Center. “They know nothing about the bill except that the right-to-try sounds like a good thing.”
    For example, she said, few people in those 37 states know they may lose hospice coverage, or they may be denied coverage for home health care if they use an experimental treatment. In Colorado, Connecticut, Oklahoma and West Virginia, patients may lose their health insurance. Their coverage may be denied for six months after treatment ends.
    So why is there a drive for a national law? According to Bateman-House and others who oppose the law, the underlying goal is to remove FDA involvement from a process that’s currently in place regarding experimental drugs.
    Under the current process for obtaining such drugs, patients must first find a doctor who will agree to try the therapy and contact the drug company for permission to use the experimental treatment. Once the doctor and patient have that permission, they fill out paperwork and send it to the FDA. If the FDA says yes, a patient can try the drug.
    But there are other hurdles. An Institutional Review Board, also called an IRB, at the hospital or other institution where the treatment will take place, must also approve the treatment. Finally, the patient must give consent and have money to pay for it.

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