4 ms·
I've experienced this from both sides. First with my father who was dying of cancer and was informed that while some promising treatments were in trials, he wa
by fatnoah 2y ago
I've experienced this from both sides. First with my father who was dying of cancer and was informed that while some promising treatments were in trials, he was not eligible. Balancing potential harm from unapproved drugs vs. certain death within 12 months feels like an easy task.
On the other side, my wife worked for a mid-sized pharma in the past. After several rounds of trials that each cost tens of millions of dollars, the FDA couldn't be convinced to approve the drug, despite hearings full of people who were either alive because the drug saved their lives or were hoping to have it approved for future use. After a couple more trials, the company ended up cutting losses and moving on to something else. Again, it feels like there should be some pathway here. Such a drug shouldn't be the first option if others are available, but if there's nothing else or other treatments haven't worked, what's the real harm in letting someone who's going to die anyway give it a shot.
- newzisforsukas 2y agoWhat was the drug?
- fatnoah 2y agoTBH, I don't remember the name as it was one of those crazy generic beezelebubatab type of generic names.
- llamaimperative 2y agoPart of the harm is in people no longer trusting drugs. We're very fortunate to be able to get prescribed a drug and have certainty the risk-reward tradeoffs have been evaluated to extreme depth by experts far more equipped than we are.
- barry-cotter 2y agoYou are past of the reason the world is a worse place than it could be. Without people like you defending excessive caution as good for the PR of drug regulatory agencies millions of people who are dead would be alive, possibly tens of millions.
- llamaimperative 2y agoOkay buddy. How many drug development programs have you worked on?
- vinnyvichy 2y ago[flagged]
- fatnoah 2y ago> Part of the harm is in people no longer trusting drugs. I'm not sure how trust would be eroded by the failure of an experimental drug to treat a terminal case where no other drugs are working.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]