Why It Matters
New Hampshire lawmakers are again moving to expand the state’s Right to Try Act, a law that governs patient access to experimental medical treatments outside the standard FDA approval process. If passed, House Bill 1735 would extend those protections beyond terminally ill patients to anyone suffering from “chronic and debilitating” conditions — a significant broadening of eligibility that could affect hundreds of thousands of New Hampshire residents living with long-term illnesses for which no FDA-approved treatment currently exists.
The proposal also carries economic implications. Supporters argue that New Hampshire’s evolving regulatory framework could attract biomedical research firms and establish the state as a hub for experimental medicine development.
What Happened
A group of Republican state lawmakers, led by Manchester Representative Brian Cole, introduced House Bill 1735 in the 2026 legislative session. The bill seeks to amend New Hampshire’s existing Right to Try Act to include patients with chronic and debilitating conditions, not just those facing terminal or life-threatening diagnoses.
Under current law, New Hampshire patients with terminal illnesses may access experimental treatments that have completed the first phase of clinical trials but have not yet received full FDA approval. A 2025 update, House Bill 701, further allowed patients with untreatable life-threatening conditions to waive their right to file malpractice or civil lawsuits — a provision designed to reduce legal risk for manufacturers and healthcare providers willing to offer experimental therapies.
HB 1735 would extend these same legal protections to patients who are not necessarily facing death but are living with serious, ongoing conditions and have exhausted conventional treatment options.
“That means you don’t need to be dying to get New Hampshire protections,” Cole said during a January legislative hearing. “You can also be in severe pain with no FDA-approved treatment path.”
Cole also framed the expansion in economic terms, stating he has been in contact with a Boston-area biotech research fund actively seeking lab space in Manchester, though he declined to name the organization. His broader goal is to develop what he described as “an experimental biomedical hub” in the state.
By the Numbers
- 2016: Year New Hampshire’s original Right to Try Act was enacted.
- 41 states have enacted some form of Right to Try legislation, according to the Goldwater Institute, a think tank that has promoted these laws nationally.
- 2025: New Hampshire passed HB 701, expanding Right to Try protections to include life-threatening — not just terminal — conditions, and adding liability waivers for providers.
- Phase 1 clinical trials are the minimum threshold a treatment must have completed for a patient to legally access it under New Hampshire’s current law.
- 1 active bill, HB 1735, is currently advancing through the New Hampshire legislature in 2026 to extend these protections further.
Zoom Out
New Hampshire’s repeated expansions of Right to Try legislation reflect a broader national movement to give patients more autonomy over their medical decisions, particularly when conventional treatments have failed. The federal Right to Try Act, signed into law in 2018, established a national baseline, but individual states have continued to push the boundaries of what those protections cover.
New Hampshire has been among the more aggressive states in layering additional provisions onto the federal framework. The 2025 liability waiver expansion, sponsored by Goffstown Republican Representative Lisa Mazur, was cited by Cole as making New Hampshire “the best legal jurisdiction in the country for access to experimental therapies for people with life-threatening illnesses.”
Critics of expansive Right to Try laws have historically raised concerns about patient protections, arguing that removing legal recourse through liability waivers can expose vulnerable patients to unproven treatments without adequate safeguards. Supporters counter that the current FDA approval timeline leaves many patients with no viable options.
What’s Next
House Bill 1735 received its first legislative hearing in January 2026 before a New Hampshire House committee. The bill must clear committee review before advancing to a full House vote, followed by consideration in the Senate if it passes. Governor Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, has not yet publicly stated a position on the measure. Should the bill pass, New Hampshire would become one of the first states in the nation to formally extend Right to Try protections to patients with chronic, non-life-threatening conditions.