ANNAPOLIS REPORT – Del. Matt Morgan’s ‘Right to Try’ signed into law

TOP NEWS OF BILL SIGNINGS FROM GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSION

Delegate Matt Morgan’s bill to give people the right to try life-saving treatments passed into law

Altering certain provisions of law authorizing certain activity by manufacturers of investigational drugs, biological products, or devices under the Right to Try Act to apply to manufacturers of certain individualized investigational treatments; altering the definition of “eligible patient” under the Right to Try Act to include individuals who have life-threatening or severely debilitating illnesses, rather than only individuals who have terminal illnesses; etc.
FROM GOLDWATER INSTITUTE:

Today, new medical treatments have to be approved by the FDA before they can be made commercially available to patients. That happens through a clinical trial, which can take years, even decades – time dying patients do not have. It also requires testing one medication on a large number of people. However, the latest kinds of treatments are tailor-made for one individual, based on their genetics. By definition, they are designed and can only work for one person and can’t go through typical FDA processes in a timely manner.

This is bureaucracy at its worst—a Catch-22 of catastrophic proportions. A major legislative reform is needed to protect patients’ right to access those treatments—the Right to Try for Individual Treatments (Right to Try 2.0).

• Tenure
• First elected to the House of Delegates in 2014.
• Member of the House since 2015.
• Current Assignments
• 2015 Health and Government Operations Committee
• 2020 Insurance and Pharmaceuticals Subcommittee of the Health and Government Operations Committee
• 2020 Health Occupations and Long-Term Care Subcommittee of the Health and Government Operations Committee
• 2019 Joint Committee on Federal Relations
• 2019 St. Mary’s County House Delegation
• (Chair, 2023)Past House ServiceAssistant Minority Leader,
• 2019-2021; Public Health and Minority Health Disparities of the Health and Government Operations Committee, 2015-2019; Government Operations and Estates and Trusts Subcommittee of the Health and Government Operations Committee, 2017-2019; Government Operations and Long Term Care Subcommittee of the Health and Government Operations Committee, 2015-2017.