Fears that US 'right to try' law could put patients at risk

The US government has controversially announced that it will allow unapproved, experimental drugs to be given to terminally ill patients. The ‘right to try’ law passed by Congress on 22 May and will apply to patients who have exhausted all approved treatment options and who cannot take part in a clinical drug trial. The experimental drugs must have passed Phase I safety testing of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Critics of the legislation say it is likely to give desperately ill patients false hope and undercut the power of the FDA. Most experimental drugs ultimately fail to help patients. The success rate for cancer drugs entering clinical trials, for example, was recently calculated as 3.6%.