Governor Signs ‘Right To Try’ Bill
Opponents of the measure -- which lets patients have greater access to drugs that have not yet been approved -- fear that it offers false hope to desperate people.
Sacramento Bee:
Dying Californians Will Get To Seek Experimental Drugs
One year after vetoing a similar measure, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Tuesday that will allow pharmaceutical companies to offer experimental drugs to terminally ill Californians. A national “right to try” movement, which seeks to expand access to not-yet-approved treatments for people who fail to get into clinical trials, yielded bills in California last year but Brown deferred to federal regulators in vetoing a measure on his desk. The governor signed this year’s similar version, Assembly Bill 1668, after it won broad support in the Legislature. It would allow drug manufacturers to offer treatments not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration if a patient has exhausted other FDA-sanctioned treatment options and has approval from two physicians. (White, 9/27)
In other news from Sacramento —
LA Daily News:
California Toughens Laws On Selling, Possessing Spice
Gov. Jerry Brown signed two bills into law over the weekend that strengthen a ban on the selling and possession of “Spice,” which sickened dozens of people on Skid Row this summer. Senate bills 139 and 1036, which were signed Sunday, close some loopholes in an existing law that already says selling Spice — a synthetic drug that mimics marijuana — is a crime. (Abram, 9/26)
KQED State of Health:
California Women Will Soon Be Able To Get A Year’s Supply Of Birth Control
California women will only have to make one trip a year to the pharmacy to pick up birth control under a new law. Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed a bill to allow pharmacists to dispense 12 months of hormonal contraceptives at one time. This will make it more convenient for women in the state, who previously, were only able to get a three months supply at a time. The new law ... also requires insurance companies to cover a year’s supply of doctor-prescribed birth control. (Fine, 9/27)