Author Topic: Scientists Wary As Texas Mulls Allowing Sale Of Unproven Drugs  (Read 923 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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houstonpublicmedia.org by Edgar Walters, Texas Tribune | Posted on May 23, 2017

A group of scientists and medical professionals is sounding the alarm in the final days of the Texas legislative session about a little-noticed bill that would allow manufacturers of unproven drugs to sell their products to dying patients.

Supporters of House Bill 3236 by state Rep. Kyle Kacal, R-College Station, say it could help incentivize drugmakers to get promising, experimental drugs onto the market and into needy patients’ hands. Its detractors say it would allow drug companies and quack doctors to use fake medicine to take advantage of sick, vulnerable families.

After emotional pleas from state lawmakers invoking family members with terminal illness, the Texas House passed the measure earlier this month in a unanimous 142-0 vote, just minutes before a critical deadline. The bill is now waiting to be heard by the Senate State Affairs Committee.

From the House floor, Kacal — whose mother died of ovarian cancer — said he hoped it would help make experimental drugs “accessible to everybody.”

Asked by state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, about concerns that the proposal could have unintended consequences, Kacal said he had “vetted the bill very well.”

But that has not eased the fear of some patient advocates.

“It’s the dirtiest, most corrupt, most transparently fraudulent bill I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Will Decker, a Houston immunologist who sits on the medical board for the advocacy group Texans for Cures. “It exists for one purpose and one purpose only: to let patients pay for snake oil.”

The debate this year is a new development in Texas’ “right to try” movement, which advocates that terminally ill patients should be allowed to try long-shot therapies that haven’t received final approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — a process that can be lengthy.

More: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/health-science/2017/05/23/202143/scientists-wary-as-texas-mulls-allowing-sale-of-unproven-drugs/



Offline Sanguine

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Re: Scientists Wary As Texas Mulls Allowing Sale Of Unproven Drugs
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2017, 09:34:39 pm »
Kacal is a real iffy guy. 

Offline Frank Cannon

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Re: Scientists Wary As Texas Mulls Allowing Sale Of Unproven Drugs
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2017, 09:38:22 pm »
If you are dying, who really cares about the effects of the drug? It's not like it will cause harm.