Should every patient in South Dakota have the right to join a clinical trial for the most promising treatments?

Help bring pragmatic trials, shared results, and more treatment options to patients in South Dakota.

Question 1 of 3

Should patients have the right to join a for a promising treatment through their physician?

Pragmatic trials compare treatments during routine care. Participation remains voluntary and requires informed consent and appropriate safety oversight.

What South Dakota has today

Legal here since 2018

Right to Try has been federal law in South Dakota since 2018. It lets some patients ask manufacturers for experimental treatments—but it built no clinics, pays no providers, and publishes no results.

Federal Right to Try Act

82,000 neighbors

About 82,000 of South Dakota's 940,000 people live with a rare disease—and 95% of the roughly 7,000 rare diseases have no approved treatment to try.

GAO rare disease report

The missing half

Montana licensed experimental treatment centers with SB 535. Right to Trial adds the evidence half—pragmatic trials, provider payment, and published results. South Dakota can adopt both at once.

Read the model act

Patient estimate: South Dakota's share of the roughly 30 million Americans with a rare disease (GAO 2025), using Census 2025 population estimates.

Who is still waiting in South Dakota

Today's medicine manages these conditions. It cures none of them.

Diabetes~110,000 people
Rare diseases~82,000 people
COPD~32,000 people
Alzheimer's disease~20,000 people

Estimates: national counts scaled to South Dakota's share of the US population (Census 2025). Each condition links to its national source.

South Dakota Right to Trial