Committee to hear “Right to Try” bill

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Members of an Oklahoma House committee plan to take up legislation that would give terminally ill patients access to medicines that have passed Phase 1 of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process but aren’t on pharmacy shelves.

The Oklahoma Right to Try Act is scheduled for a hearing Wednesday before the House Public Health Committee. It’s similar to laws already in place in Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Michigan and Missouri. Oklahoma is among 28 states considering the measure this year.

The FDA has a process that allows people to ask permission to access investigational medicines. But the "compassionate use" process takes hundreds of hours of paperwork and months to navigate. While many people eventually receive FDA permission, there are dozens of documented cases of people dying while waiting for approval.