Nebraska Becomes 40th State to Adopt Right to Try Law

Governor Ricketts signs law to help terminally ill

Contact: Starlee Coleman, scoleman@goldwaterinstitute.org

 

Lincoln, NE—Governor Pete Ricketts has signed the Nebraska Right to Try Act, a Goldwater Institute measure that protects the right of terminally ill patients to try promising new treatments that are being safely used in clinical trials but are not yet widely available. LB117 passed with bipartisan support and was sponsored by Senator Robert Hilkemann. Nebraska is the 40th state to adopt a Right to Try law since 2014.
 
A federal Right to Try law passed the U.S. Senate unanimously in August; a separate Right to Try law passed the U.S. House in March. Because the House and Senate have passed different versions of the law, additional steps still need to be taken before the legislation makes it to the President’s desk for signature.
 
“This is another great win for patients’ rights,” said Victor Riches, the President & CEO of the Goldwater Institute. “The question now is how many states have to pass this law before Congress does its part?  Forty states—enough to amend the Constitution—have made it clear that this issue is critical for American patients. It’s time for the U.S. House and Senate to come together at the federal level so that the millions of Americans facing terminal diagnoses have access to new treatments.”
 
“I am grateful that Nebraska has joined the list of states that allow terminally ill patients access to medications and treatments that may help them save their own lives,” said Senator Hilkemann. “We have given Nebraskans the Right to Try potentially groundbreaking medications and therapies and to offer them hope when conventional treatments have not.”
 
Right to Try was first enacted in Colorado in 2014. Four years later, Right to Try is law in: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
 
The Goldwater Institute crafted the policy upon which all state Right to Try laws are based and has been leading the national effort to pass the law in the remaining states and in Congress.
 
Right to Try is saving lives already. In Texas alone, Dr. Ebrahim Delpassand helped nearly 200 patients access a treatment for advanced stage neuroendocrine cancer that had completed clinical trials but was not yet fully approved. Many of these patients were told they had only months to live but are still alive years later, thanks to Right to Try. After a two and a half year wait, that drug recently received full approval by the FDA.
 

Read more about Right to Try here and follow the movement on Facebook and Twitter.

 

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About the Goldwater Institute
The Goldwater Institute drives results by working daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and strengthen the freedom guaranteed to all Americans in the constitutions of the United States and all 50 states. With the blessing of its namesake, the Goldwater Institute opened in 1988. Its early years focused on defending liberty in Barry Goldwater’s home state of Arizona. Today, the Goldwater Institute is a national leader for constitutionally limited government respected by the left and right for its adherence to principle and real world impact. No less a liberal icon than the New York Times calls the Goldwater Institute a “watchdog for conservative ideals” that plays an “outsize role” in American political life.