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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Legislation that would give terminally ill patients in Oklahoma access to experimental medications that are not yet on pharmacy shelves could restore a sense of dignity to those who are dying, the measure's author said Wednesday.
"It gives them new hope, the possibility that one of these experimental drugs will hit the mark," Rep. Richard Morrissette, an Oklahoma City Democrat, said after the House Public Health Committee voted 10-0 in favor of the Oklahoma Right to Try Act and sent it to the full House.
Backed by the Goldwater Institute, a conservative public policy group established with the support of the late Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona, the measure is similar to laws already in place in Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Michigan and Missouri.
Obtaining potentially life-saving investigational medications is difficult for terminally ill patients who have exhausted their conventional treatment options, according to the Goldwater Institute. Patients can try to enroll in a clinical trial, but only 3 percent of terminally ill patients are currently enrolled.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows people to request permission to access investigational medicines, but the process takes hundreds of hours of paperwork and months to complete. The institute says there are dozens of documented cases of people dying while waiting on their approval.
Right to Try legislation gives terminally ill patients the option of obtaining medications or devices that have passed the first of multiple phases in an FDA approval process but are not yet on pharmacy shelves. The legislation expands access to potentially life-saving medications years before patients would normally be able to access them, according to the bill's supporters.
"This is a right-to-life issue," Morrissette, who is not on the committee, told members of the panel. "It's not a Republican or Democratic issue."
Christina Sandefur, senior attorney for the Goldwater Institute, said: "These are people whose days, hours, even minutes may be numbered."
Among other requirements: A terminally ill patient's doctor must recommend the use of an investigational medicine, the patient must formally acknowledge the drug's potential risks and the company developing the medication must be willing to make it available before the medication can be accessed.
Morrissette said drug manufacturers have taken a neutral position on the measure and neither support nor oppose it.
"Everybody's willing to look at it," he said.
Before approving the measure, committee members amended it to permit investigational drugs made available under the bill to be provided through a pharmacy when possible rather than directly by the drug's manufacturer.
Oklahoma is among 29 states where legislation to create Right to Try laws has been filed, according to the Goldwater Institute. Eleven of those states have passed a Right to Try measure through at least one chamber of their Legislatures since the beginning of the year.
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Online:
House Bill 1074: http://bit.ly/1EQY93v
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