Beacon Impact

Expanding Access to Life-Saving Medical Treatments with Right to Try 2.0

In 2015, Tennessee passed the Phil Timp-Amanda Wilcox Right to Try Act. This ground-breaking law, later adopted by Congress, allows terminally ill patients to access medicine that has been deemed safe by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) but that has not received the agency’s final approval.

With the passage of time, healthcare innovations have advanced significantly and have outpaced the original Right to Try law. Terminally ill patients still do not have time for the conclusion of clinical trials based on a large group of people. However, they have the option of new, innovative treatments based on their individual genetics. Because of the time constraints and the custom nature of these treatments, they can’t wait for traditional FDA approval processes. Further, the individualized nature of the treatments means they are not right for large-scale clinical trials.

Under the proposed Right to Try for Individualized Treatments (Right to Try 2.0) legislation, terminal patients will have more options for potentially life-saving treatment. The bill will provide protections to patients by requiring FDA-approved treatment options to be considered first, requiring prescribing physicians to be in good-standing, and requiring the patient or their guardian to provide written consent acknowledging the risks.

Want to take action and ask lawmakers to give Tennesseans options for innovative health care? Click here to message your lawmakers now!

Want more information? Contact us anytime

SCOTT GILMER

Vice President of Policy and Advocacy
Scott.Gilmer@BeaconImpact.org

615-483-7802

STEPHANIE WHITT

Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President
Stephanie@BeaconImpact.org

(615) 556-7192