WaPost facts checks woman making claims about 'right to try'

[Lion Heart 15,041]

 

Under the bright lights of the Republican National Convention on Monday night, California entrepreneur Natalie Harp said President Trump literally saved her life.

“When I failed the chemotherapies that were on the market, no one wanted me in their clinical trials,” Harp said in an emotional address. “They didn’t give me the right to try experimental treatments, Mr. President. You did, and without you, I’d have died waiting for them to be approved.”

But experts cast doubt on that story: They point out that Harp’s description of the treatment she received and her timeline for receiving it make it unlikely Trump had any effect on her case.

Harp has repeatedly credited a “Right to Try” law, pushed by the president and signed into law in May 2018 for saving her life. But the treatment she said she has received — "an FDA-approved immunotherapy drug for an unapproved use” in her own words — would not have been covered under Right to Try because the drug had already been approved.

In online accounts and interviews, Harp said that when she was diagnosed with Stage 2 bone cancer she “failed the two available chemotherapies for my rare disease and was denied from clinical trials.” In the end, she “found another oncologist who was willing to try a different approach — an FDA-approved immunotherapy drug for an unapproved use.”

Medical experts say such applications — called “off-label use” — are common in cancer treatment and long predated the law. Right To Try, on the other hand, was supposed to help patients gain access to drugs that have not been “approved or licensed by the FDA for any use.” Indeed, the justification the law’s backers gave was to allow desperately ill patients to bypass the government to get experimental medicines if they were willing to take the risk.

It is also striking that two months before Trump even signed the law, Harp had already spoken online about receiving her new treatment.

...

For the past two years, Trump has claimed passage of the Right-to-Try law as a hallmark accomplishment and a centerpiece in his campaign. He has bragged that it will save “thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands” and last year called it “a miracle — so many people have been saved.”

But Alison Bateman-House, a medical ethicist at the New York University School of Medicine, has tracked the law’s application and estimates that fewer than 10 people have used it to get treatments since it was passed.

“The problem is it’s a classic case of Trump demagoguery. It sounds good — cutting red tape and saving lives — but at the root of it there’s nothing there,” said Peter Lurie, former top official of the Food and Drug Administration, now president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “The FDA already had a process that approved more than 90 percent of people who wanted access to these drugs and treatments.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/08/25/natalie-harp-bone-cancer-trump/

[Bubblegum Bitch 18,934]

If I say Gaga saved my life, it will be true tho. 

 

[Kimmo 82,329]

He should be saving Melania instead... 

[waterlikemisery 1,008]

I feel horrible for these women who are simply brainwashed, but you know what? **** them. **** their racist, hateful asses.

[SeIena Gomez 1,609]

Giving me very much Mrs. Waterford from the Handmaids Tale 

[INNA 3,791]

Yeah, she does seem like a real harp tbh.

[gag 22,449]

What were people expecting from a Trumpie? The truth? 

[lilmonster2424 1,803]

I watched the RNC last night just out of curiosity and girl when I tell you I was SHOOK by what I saw... I couldn't believe it. One lady was BLATANTLY TRANSPHOBIC and said "the libs want boys in girls sports and in girls locker rooms and bathrooms!!" how has our country gotten to this point, and how is NO ONE and NO NEWS OUTLETS talking about that disgusting transphobic and discriminatory claim???? I can't even... all I know is that if you're in the US make sure you VOTE and every single person you know does. So much is on the line. 1/5 LGBTQ+ people are not registered to vote. 

[uo111 5,283]

You don't need an "expert" for this. Rich white people can get any drug that has been approved for any indication so long as they can find a 1) doctor willing to prescribe it and 2) can afford it.

 

Plus, for chemotherapy if a patient wants in a trial it's so incredibly easy. The national guidelines literally recommend people enter into trials rather than try standard of care for many cancers because the standard of care has such poor outcomes.

[DannyBrown 185]

12 hours ago, Kimmo said:

He should be saving Melania instead...