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# House Passes Controversial Right to Try Act
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/house-passes-controversial-right-to-try-act/
- Published: 2018-05-22T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T00:06:38.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, #legacy-id-D5141510

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed S. 204, the Senate version of the Right to Try Act that was passed by that chamber 8/2017\. Health advocacy group Public Citizen says that the “Senate’s seriously flawed False Hope legislation, opens the gate to a dangerous, uncharted pathway for accessing experimental medications that have not been shown to be safe or effective. The House lawmakers who supported the bill ignored pleas from four former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioners, hundreds of bioethicists and several dozen patient safety, consumer and physician groups. They also disregarded the fact that H.R. 5247, although flawed, would have provided stronger safeguards for patients than those provided by S. 204.”

The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) says it is disappointed by the bill’s passage. “We have strongly opposed all Right to Try legislation, as we do not believe that it will safely and genuinely increase access to investigational therapies outside of clinical trials,” the organization says. “Unfortunately, this version of Right to Try, S.204, is particularly concerning. S.204 is devoid of all patient protections that the House version of Right of Try, H.R.5247, added. S.204 does not set a standard for informed consent, has a much broader definition of eligibility, and contains vastly weaker reporting requirements. Thus, not only will this legislation be ineffective, as all Right to Try laws are, it will also present a danger to the many patients we represent.”

To protect patients, Public Citizen urges pharmaceutical companies to make their experimental medications available to patients who are not enrolled in clinical trials only under the agency’s much safer Expanded Access program.

The measure now heads to President Trump’s desk for signing.