President Trump signed the bipartisan Right to Try Act (S. 204) into law today. This legislation will allow patients access to drugs and treatments that have passed the first phase of trials supervised by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The White House reached out to The Heartland Institute earlier this year for suggestions on President Trump’s State of the Union Address. Heartland Institute President Dr. Tim Huelskamp – who served in Congress from 2010 to 2017 – suggested the president push for a Right to Try bill. The Heartland Institute has a plan to provide even greater access to life-saving drugs called Free To Choose Medicine.
The following statement from Heartland Institute President Dr. Tim Huelskamp may be used for attribution. For more comments, refer to the contact information below. To book Dr. Huelskamp or another Heartland expert on your program, please contact Media Specialist Billy Aouste at [email protected] and 312/377-4000.
“The life-saving Right to Try reform for prescription drugs has gone from a suggestion from The Heartland Institute to the White House, to President Trump’s State of the Union Address, to law in less than five months. I can’t remember any life-saving reform moving so fast when I was in Congress.
“President Trump, Vice President Pence, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Reps. Michael C. Burgess (R-TX), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), and Andy Biggs (R-AZ) deserve praise for making sure ‘Right to Try’ was not just a forgotten throw-away line in a speech but became real so lives can be saved. Right to Try will be the building block for even greater reforms that put life-and-death decisions where they rightfully belong: back into the hands of patients and their doctors – not distant bureaucrats.”
Tim Huelskamp, Ph.D.
President
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000
Dr. Huelskamp represented Kansas’ 1st District in the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2017.