Iowa Among States Pushing Right to Try 2.0 to Cut FDA Red Tape

By John Damon

Congress is considering the Right to Try Individualized Treatment Act, a bill that would allow patients with devastating rare diseases to access experimental, individually targeted gene therapies without waiting for FDA approval. Iowa is one of 18 states that have already passed state versions of the law, which builds on the original Right to Try Act signed by President Donald Trump in 2018.

Why do families need Right to Try 2.0?

The original Right to Try law allowed terminally ill patients to access investigational treatments that had passed basic clinical trials but lacked FDA approval. However, breakthroughs in medical science now allow for highly specific individualized treatments, such as gene therapies tailored to a patient's DNA. The Goldwater Institute, which crafted both the original and the 2.0 version, says the FDA's outdated regulatory processes cannot handle these custom treatments in a timely manner.