Washington, DC - Vice President Mike Pence today met with Right to Try families to encourage them to continue their efforts and discuss the importance of pending legislation before the Congress. Right to Try legislation would allow doctors to prescribe to terminally ill patients medicines that have only made it through the first of three approval phases at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
During the presidential campaign, the President and Vice President voiced their strong support for enacting Right to Try legislation at the federal level.
The Right to Try families expressed to Vice President Pence that expanded access to drug therapies would allow patients to circumvent the bureaucratic process at the FDA, as well as long waits for clinical trials, to obtain life-saving treatments.
Vice President Pence reiterated his belief that a Right to Try law is fundamentally about restoring hope and gives patients with terminal illnesses a fighting chance by giving them access to experimental drugs that have already passed the FDA’s safety review process. The Vice President and the families discussed how Right to Try legislation is the first step towards getting patients the medical innovations that will save their lives. Vice President Pence offered the President’s encouragement to the families to keep fighting for a national Right to Try law and made clear that both he and President Trump are committed supporters of Right to Try legislation.
As Governor of Indiana, Vice President Pence signed Right to Try legislation into law in 2015. That legislation was inspired by 8-year-old Jordan McLinn, who was present for today’s meeting in the Vice President’s Ceremonial Office.
