SB 72: "Hope for Georgia Patients Act"; enact

Georgia already has a Right to Try law letting terminally ill patients seek investigational drugs. This bill, called the Hope for Georgia Patients Act, reorganizes that existing law into 'Article 1' and adds a new 'Article 2' that goes further. It lets manufacturers and specially certified research facilities offer patients individualized investigational treatments, meaning drugs or therapies made specifically for one patient based on their own genetic profile, such as personalized gene therapy or cancer vaccines. These treatments do not need final approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. To qualify, a patient must have a life-threatening or severely debilitating illness, have discussed all FDA-approved options with a physician, gotten a physician recommendation based on genetic analysis, and signed a detailed written consent form describing the risks. The bill makes clear that insurers, hospitals, and the state are not required to cover or provide these treatments, protects physicians from license sanctions for recommending them, and limits lawsuits against manufacturers and providers who follow the law's consent and care requirements in good faith.

• Reorganizes Georgia's existing Right to Try law into 'Article 1' of Chapter 52, Title 31, without changing its substance beyond renaming references from 'chapter' to 'article.'
• Creates a new 'Article 2' allowing manufacturers and federally certified research facilities to provide individualized, genetically tailored investigational treatments to eligible patients.
• Sets eligibility rules requiring a physician's written documentation of the illness, consideration of FDA-approved options, a genetics-based treatment recommendation, and the patient's written informed consent.
• Specifies that health plans, government agencies, hospitals, and healthcare facilities are not required to cover or provide these individualized treatments or related care.
• Bars the Georgia Composite Medical Board from disciplining a physician's license solely for recommending or prescribing these treatments, and bars the Department of Community Health from acting against a provider's Medicare certification on that basis.
• Limits lawsuits against manufacturers, facilities, and other caregivers who act in good faith and obtain proper consent, and protects a deceased patient's estate from debt tied to the experimental treatment, though not from unrelated medical bills.

Patients with severely debilitating or life-threatening illnesses and their families, physicians who recommend or prescribe these treatments, drug and biologic manufacturers, federally certified research facilities, hospitals, health insurers, the Georgia Composite Medical Board, and the Department of Community Health.

Patients who have exhausted FDA-approved treatments would gain a new legal pathway to try genetically personalized experimental therapies without waiting for full FDA approval, but they would bear the costs unless a manufacturer agrees otherwise, and insurers would not be required to pay for the treatment or resulting care.

• Section 2 designates the current Right to Try law (O.C.G.A. §§ 31-52-1 through 31-52-10) as 'Article 1' within Chapter 52 of Title 31.
• Section 4 revises the definitions section (O.C.G.A. § 31-52-3), updating terminology such as changing 'chapter' to 'article' and 'health care' to 'healthcare.'
• Section 5 adds a new Article 2 (O.C.G.A. §§ 31-52-20 through 31-52-27) defining 'individualized investigational treatment,' 'eligible facility,' and related terms, explicitly excluding treatments derived from embryonic stem cells.
• O.C.G.A. § 31-52-21 sets eligibility criteria requiring physician documentation of illness, consideration of approved treatments, a genetics-based recommendation, and written consent.
• O.C.G.A. § 31-52-22 lists the minimum required contents of the written informed consent, including risk descriptions and statements about insurance, hospice eligibility, and financial liability.
• O.C.G.A. § 31-52-24 states that health plans, government agencies, and hospitals are not required to cover or provide services related to these treatments.
• O.C.G.A. § 31-52-25 protects physicians' medical licenses and providers' Medicare certification from sanctions based solely on recommending these treatments.
• O.C.G.A. § 31-52-27 limits civil liability for manufacturers and providers acting in good faith and protects a deceased patient's estate from debt directly tied to the experimental treatment, except for unrelated nonexperimental care.

1. 2025-07-01Effective Date
2. 2025-05-12Act 122
3. 2025-05-12Senate Date Signed by Governor (Senate)
4. 2025-04-07Senate Sent to Governor (Senate)
5. 2025-03-27House Passed/Adopted (House)
6. 2025-03-27House Third Readers (House)
7. 2025-03-20House Committee Favorably Reported (House)
8. 2025-02-27House Second Readers (House)

• Matt Brass (R, SD-6)Primary sponsor
• Kay Kirkpatrick (R, SD-32)
• Greg Dolezal (R, SD-27)
• Brian Strickland (R, SD-42)
• Larry Walker, III (R, SD-20)
• John Albers (R, SD-56)
• Carden Summers (R, SD-13)
• Rick Williams (R, SD-25)
• Randy Robertson (R, SD-29)
• Colton Moore (R, SD-53)
• Chuck Hufstetler (R, SD-52)
• Russ Goodman (R, SD-8)
• Drew Echols (R, SD-49)
• Blake Tillery (R, SD-19)
• Bo Hatchett (R, SD-50)
• Lee Hawkins (R, HD-27)

1. PassedSenate voteFebruary 24, 2025

   56 yea, 0 nay

   PASSAGE BY SUBSTITUTE: Senate Vote #86

2. PassedHouse voteMarch 27, 2025

   161 yea, 0 nay (16 not voting, 3 excused)

   PASSAGE: House Vote #318

• right to try
• medical treatment access
• genetic therapy
• physician liability
• healthcare law