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Clinical trials Medicine Politics Science Skepticism/critical thinking

A victory and a more substantial defeat for the cruel sham known as “right to try”

I’ve referred to so-called “right to try” laws as a cruel sham.on more than one occasion. Since 2014, these laws, all based on a template provided by the libertarian Goldwater Institute, have been proliferating at the state level with the help of lobbying by the aforementioned Goldwater Institute and a concept that makes it pitifully […]

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics

“Right to try”: A miserable failure thus far

I’ve frequently called “right to try” laws that are popping up in various states like so much kudzu, to the point where 31 states have passed them in a little over two years, an amazing pace, a cruel sham, given how incredibly unlikely they are to help a single patient. Basically, state-level right-to-try laws are […]

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Medicine

“Right to try” goes federal, thus far unsuccessfully

It’s been nearly two weeks since a new “right to try” bill (AB 1668) passed the California legislature with overwhelming support and was sent to Governor Jerry Brown’s desk to be signed. Thus far, he has not signed it, which is good, but neither have I seen a story that he has vetoed it either. […]

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Clinical trials Medicine Politics Popular culture Skepticism/critical thinking

As I predicted, Stanislaw Burzynski is using “right to try” to bypass the FDA

About three months ago, I was displeased to see in a normally reliable source of medical news (STAT News) a story about a patient of cancer quack Stanislaw Burzynski, Neil Fachon, that fell victim to every trope that Burzynski’s used for 40 years to present himself to the press as a “brave maverick” doctor and […]

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Clinical trials Medicine Politics

The cruel sham that is “right to try” continues to spread, part 2

When I wrote yesterday about the cruel sham that is “right-to-try,” , one criticism (among many) that I made of these misguided, profoundly patient-unfriendly laws was that I have as yet been unable to find a single example of a patient who has managed to obtain access to an experimental therapeutic through such a law, […]