IS ACCESS TO EXPERIMENTAL DRUGS FOR TERMINALLY ILL PATIENTS A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT?
The Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs is a nonprofit organization devoted to helping cancer patients, and other individuals with life- threatening illnesses, gain increased access to developmental drugs. Founded in 2001, the group represents those individuals who have exhausted all possible treatments for their disease, and whose best chance of survival is to obtain access to certain drugs with a record of clinical success in pre-approval testing, but which have not yet been approved by the FDA for marketing. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the federal agency responsible for ensuring that foods are safe, wholesome and sanitary; human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices are safe and effective; cosmetics are safe; and electronic products that emit radiation are safe. FDA also ensures that these products are honestly, accurately and informatively represented to the public. Pursuant to the authority granted by Congr
