Fight Over Drug Access Continues
The founder of a group fighting for access to unapproved drugs vows to seek an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in an 8-2 en banc opinion yesterday that there is no constitutional right of access to experimental drugs. (See this ABAJournal.com post for more information.)
Frank Burroughs, who founded the Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs after his daughter died of cancer, said he would seek Supreme Court cert. He told the New York Times he was “dumbfounded that most of the justices tragically missed the merits of the case.”
The en banc court had vacated an earlier panel ruling finding a right to experimental drugs based on a 1990 Supreme Court decision, Cruzan v. Missouri Department of Health, SCOTUSblog reports. Cruzan found a constitutional right to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment.
