Supreme Court lets stand experimental drug ruling

The Supreme Court has declined to consider whether dying patients have a right to be treated with experimental drugs that haven’t yet been approved by the FDA. Without comment or recorded dissent, the Court let stand a US Court of Appeals ruling that said the terminally ill have no constitutional right to drugs the agency considers safe enough only for additional testing.

The challenge was brought by the Washington Legal Foundation and the Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs. The alliance is headed by Frank Burroughs of Fredericksburg and named in honor of his daughter, Abigail Burroughs, who was diagnosed at 19 and died at 21 of a form of cancer rare in someone her age.

The young woman died in 2001, and the drug she was seeking was later approved.

Steve Walker, co-founder of the alliance, called the court’s decision not to hear the case “a tragedy.”

“We have now had all three branches of government abandon our constituents, which now number in the thousands,” Walker said.

Supreme Court Lets Stand Experimental-Drug Ruling [Via The Washington Post]

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