Congress passes version of 'right to try' bill

After several failed congressional attempts to meet US President Donald Trump’s request for a so-called ‘right to try’ bill earlier this year, lawmakers have finally succeeded in delivering legislation for him to sign.

The House of Representatives voted, by 250 to 169, to approve a version of the bill that was agreed in the Senate last year.

The bill will give terminally ill patients the right to request that pharma firms provide drug candidates before the US Food and Drug Administration has cleared them for marketing, although firms will not be obliged to do so.