Provenge is in scarce supply: “The shortages stem from Dendreon’s uncertainty about whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would approve the drug.” [Bloomberg via Stoll]
Eh… hard for me to get worked up about a shortage of what is undoubtedly a very expensive treatment that extends survival by a mere four months. I’m tempted to say that amount of time doesn’t matter at all in the larger picture, however neither I nor loved ones have aggressive terminal prostate cancer.
I guess it could be taken as a parable about gov’t red tape getting in the way of consumer demand, but then again that’s nothing new.
Hum? Brings up the issue of what’s the companies obligation to produce the drug. It would seem that they need only make enough to satisfy the clinical trials that they have agreed to.
Could they be sued for NOT making a drug that people want to buy? A wrongful death lawsuit for a lack of production of a drug before or after FDA clearance? Hum?
There have been several cases where people have sued drug makers in order to be given new drugs (either to extent a clinical trial they were part of or to be included in a clinical trial). I don’t believe anyone has been successful, but a number have used the publicity to leverage for what they wanted.
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Eh… hard for me to get worked up about a shortage of what is undoubtedly a very expensive treatment that extends survival by a mere four months. I’m tempted to say that amount of time doesn’t matter at all in the larger picture, however neither I nor loved ones have aggressive terminal prostate cancer.
I guess it could be taken as a parable about gov’t red tape getting in the way of consumer demand, but then again that’s nothing new.
Hum? Brings up the issue of what’s the companies obligation to produce the drug. It would seem that they need only make enough to satisfy the clinical trials that they have agreed to.
Could they be sued for NOT making a drug that people want to buy? A wrongful death lawsuit for a lack of production of a drug before or after FDA clearance? Hum?
There have been several cases where people have sued drug makers in order to be given new drugs (either to extent a clinical trial they were part of or to be included in a clinical trial). I don’t believe anyone has been successful, but a number have used the publicity to leverage for what they wanted.