More cruelty to patients

Here's a link to the Register's editorial today on the D.C. Circuit Court's decision to allow the FDA to continue to deny terminal patients access to drugs that have gone through Phase One of FDA testing -- the phase that focuses on safety. It might not be quite as simple as expressed here. I talked to Henry Miller at Hoover Institution and Stanford today, and he says that after Phase One data are still pretty scarce. But for patients facing the end of life with a chance to live a little longer if the drug works, what have they got to lose? They'll very seldom die sooner if the drug turns out not to be as effective as hoped, and more data will be generated.