The Right to Try: America's Drug Approval Regime

Civil Rights Practice Group Teleforum

Should you need the government’s permission to try to save your own life? Today, the FDA regulates medications available to Americans, and it takes an average of ten years to bring a new drug to market. Every day Americans die from fatal diseases for which lifesaving treatments that now exist or are being developed are ruled too “dangerous” for commercial distribution. But how does that FDA standard apply to someone in the terminal stages of cancer or ALS? If terminal patients are given access and drug makers are given immunity, might drugs nearing approval be derailed if there is a bad result for a small number of patients? In her recent book, The Right to Try, Darcy Olsen goes inside the federal bureaucracy that she claims is stopping millions from accessing lifesaving treatments, lays out the case for expanding access to experimental medicines, and describes the ongoing national campaign to change these laws state-by-state.

Featuring:

• Darcy Olsen, President and CEO, Goldwater Institute
• Evan Bernick, Assistant Director, Center for Judicial Engagement, Institute for Justice

Should you need the government’s permission to try to save your own life? Today, the FDA regulates medications available to Americans, and it takes an average of ten years to bring a new drug to market. Every day Americans die from fatal diseases for which lifesaving treatments that now exist or are being developed are ruled too “dangerous” for commercial distribution. But how does that FDA standard apply to someone in the terminal stages of cancer or ALS? If terminal patients are given access and drug makers are given immunity, might drugs nearing approval be derailed if there is a bad result for a small number of patients? In her recent book, The Right to Try, Darcy Olsen goes inside the federal bureaucracy that she claims is stopping millions from accessing lifesaving treatments, lays out the case for expanding access to experimental medicines, and describes the ongoing national campaign to change these laws state-by-state.

Featuring:

• Darcy Olsen, President and CEO, Goldwater Institute
• Evan Bernick, Assistant Director, Center for Judicial Engagement, Institute for Justice

Call begins at 2:00 pm Eastern Time.

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