A ‘Right to Try’ That Americans Didn’t Need

Now that President Donald Trump has signed his long-sought “right to try” law, Americans have a dubious new freedom to bypass the drug quality-control system and experiment with medicines of questionable safety that may or may not work.

This solves no real problem. The Food and Drug Administration has long granted access to medicines that are only partway through the U.S. approval process for patients in extreme circumstances who might benefit. But a myth had spread throughout the land, promulgated by conservative groups, that dying patients were being refused permission to try experimental drugs. Congress responded with a feel-good law.