Montana’s experimental treatment law hands a VC the keys

Getty Images; Andreas Macho; Alyssa Powell/BI The biotech industry helped draft Montana's right-to-try law, hoping to create medical tourism hub. Now, the state is relying on a privately run board to decide which experimental treatments to offer. The company behind it created a biotech hub in a regulation-free zone on a Caribbean island. Investors on the libertarian fringe of the biotech industry are making their dream of wide-ranging access to experimental drugs a reality in Montana. Last year, they helped draft a state law to expand access to drugs that no regulator has deemed safe and effective. Now, Montana is relying on a privately run board to decide which treatments to offer — raising concerns about conflicts of interest and, in an industry rife with unfounded claims, whether patients will get value for their money.