Senate committee hears testimony on bill to allow individualized right-to-try treatments

At a hearing of the Senate Committee on Public Health and Welfare, proponents testified in favor of Senate Bill 250, the "Right to Try for Individualized Treatments Act," which would let certain manufacturers and eligible facilities make individualized investigational drugs, biologics or devices available to patients when recommended by a physician.

The bill, summarized by committee staff member Jenna, would allow a manufacturer operating within an eligible facility that holds a Federal Wide Assurance (FWA) to provide an ‘‘individualized investigational treatment’’ — treatments created uniquely for a single patient based on that patient’s genetic profile — and to require the patient to pay associated costs. Jenna told the committee the bill would not expand what insurers must cover and that a governmental agency may choose to pay…