The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia Circuit overturned last year's decision by a
smaller panel of the same court, which held that
terminally ill patients may not be denied access to
potentially lifesaving drugs.
The full court disagreed, saying in an 8-2 ruling
that it would not create a constitutional right for
patients to assume "any level of risk" without regard to
medical testing.
"Terminally ill patients desperately need curative
treatments," Judge Thomas B. Griffith wrote for the
majority. But "their deaths can certainly be hastened by
the use of a potentially toxic drug with no proven
therapeutic benefit."
Food and Drug
Administration approval of drugs generally
requires extensive testing that can involve years of
trials and thousands of patients.
The Abigail Alliance for Better Access to
Developmental Drugs and the Washington Legal Foundation
sued the FDA in 2003, seeking access for terminally ill
patients to drugs that have undergone preliminary safety
testing in as few as 20 people but have yet to be
approved.
FDA spokeswoman Susan Cruzan said the agency was
pleased with the decision, which she said considered the
public's safety and the need for access to experimental
drugs.
Abigail Alliance founder Frank Burroughs pledged an
appeal to the Supreme Court. Burroughs' daughter,
Abigail, was denied access to
experimental cancer drugs and died in 2001. The
drug she was seeking was approved years later.
