Arizona Passes Goldwater Institute’s Right to Try Law

Arizona has become the 41st state to enact a “right-to-try” law that allows patients to access drugs that are still in clinical trials without asking the FDA for permission under the agency’s expanded access program.

The Arizona legislation, which was proposed by the Goldwater Institute, a libertarian think tank, aims to bypass FDA regulatory approval processes to provide treatments that are “tailor-made for one individual, based on their genetics, and by definition cannot go through typical FDA processes in a timely manner,” the institute said.

The first version of the Right to Try law was passed in Colorado in 2014 and federal legislation was signed into law by former President Donald Trump in 2018.

The FDA maintains that its expanded access program works well and that the right-to-try laws are unnecessary.