Inside STAT: Congress wants an ALS patient to get a therapy never tested in humans 

JACI HERMSTAD AT HER RELATIVE'S RANCH IN WEBB, IOWA. (HILARY KOLLASCH)

After months of circulating petitions, tweeting at President Trump, and calling on influential politicians in Congress, Iowa’s Jaci Hermstad and her family may finally be getting what they want: the chance to try an experimental drug. Hermstad, a 25-year-old who is dying from a rare form of ALS, has gotten hints from the FDA that she will be able to get a drug that hasn’t ever been tested in humans and therefore does not fit the bill of an experimental drug that patients can have access to under the “right to try” law that was passed last year. But the Hermstads’ success in getting through to the FDA has reignited a debate on how the regulatory agency and politicians play a role in deciding how patients get access to unapproved treatments. STAT’s Nicholas Florko has more here.