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Talan Summers is pinning his hopes on the Right to Try bill that both houses of the Utah Legislature have now passed.

The Senate voted 26-0 Thursday for Huntsville Republican Rep. Gage Froerer's HB94, which would allow terminally ill patients to use experimental drugs and devices that have yet to receive full approval from regulators. It was sent back to the House to approve some amendments, but representatives previously voted for it 72-1.

"There's still a lot of meds I don't know about that could come to light that could help me," the 23-year-old from Tremonton said. "I hope every day there will be something."

Summers has a rare disease called IGg4 systemic sclerosing disease, which is turning his tissues and organs hard inside. There is no cure, and the disease eventually will kill him.

Froerer's bill would allow patients, in partnership with their doctors, to approach drug companies directly and request treatments that have passed the first phase of the Food and Drug Administration's approval process, showing they are safe for human trials. Patients may face the full cost of the drug.

"It really is an opportunity to allow hope to people that may otherwise not have it," sponsoring Sen. Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City told the Senate in debate this week.

"It puts the decision process solely back in the hands of the physician and family," Vickers, a pharmacist, said. "And there are safeguards all the way through to protect everybody who is involved: the provider, the insurer, the manufacturer and, most importantly, the patient."

The FDA's compassionate use program allows the same thing, but the paperwork involved can be onerous for a patient's doctor.

"I'm so ecstatic," Jennifer Summers, Talan Summers' mother, said after the Senate vote Thursday. "This is going to help so many people out there."

Talan Summers first started having problems while at Bear River High School. It took years to learn what he has.

Summers said he has been able to get access to a pain drug through Medicare that is not yet fully approved by regulators. It helps with breakthrough pain, he said, but the Right to Try legislation gives him even more hope.

Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, noted he recently sat for two weeks with the late House Speaker Becky Lockhart as she was dying. "If there would have been any hope for any experimental drug of any kind…we would have jumped on it in a heartbeat."

Bramble said that experience convinced him the bill should be passed.

"We should be able to have all the choices available," said Sen. Karen Mayne, D-West Valley City. She said she did not have such options when her late husband, former Sen. Ed Mayne, died.

Twitter: @LeeHDavidson @KristenMoulton