Hope in not-yet-approved drugs.

• Author: Cauchi, Dick
• Position: TRENDS

Under federal "compassionate use" regulations, around 1,000 terminally ill patients annually receive permission to try drugs not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Many more, however, die from terminal illnesses every year, according to the "Right to Try" advocacy group affiliated with the Goldwater Institute.

State legislators have been active in considering legislation that allows patients who have exhausted available treatments to request drugs that have passed at least the first of three phases of clinical trials. These Right to Try state laws require the consent of the drug manufacturer and a doctor's diagnosis of a terminal disease.

Lawmakers in Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Michigan and Missouri were the first to enact these laws in 2014. Just 18 months later, the total has jumped to 31 states.

The...