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Lucas Richert

Lucas Richert is a sessional lecturer in the Department of History, University of Saskatchewan. He received his PhD from the School of Advanced Studies at the University of London. He has published works on American politics and health policy in places like Pharmacy in History, Social History of Medicine, and his recently published book is called Conservatism, Consumer Choice, and the Food and Drug Administration during the Reagan Era: A Prescription for Scandal (Lanham, MD: Lexington Press, 2014). His next research project examines American psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry in the 1960s.

“Right to Try” (Again): A history of the experimental therapy movement

In recent weeks and months, momentum has increased on Capitol Hill to craft “right to try” laws that would profoundly change the medical landscape. The national legislation will allow terminally ill patients more access to experimental therapies (drugs, biologics, devices) that have completed Phase 1 testing. Powerful pharmaceutical and biotech concerns have been largely quiet. The Trump administration, for its part, has underlined the issue, not only in the State of the Union Address but in VP Mike Pence’s active support.