Andrea Sloan, 'Poster Child' For Compassionate Use, Gets A Drug

One of the more contentious and high-profile fights over compassionate use in recent years may be drawing to a close. Andrea Sloan, who spent the past two months battling with BioMarin Pharmaceutical over access to a drug that she hoped to use to treat her Stage 3c ovarian cancer, says that she has been granted compassionate use by another company that she declines to name. “These past months have been an amazing journey – exhilarating and exhausting all at once. While I have been pursuing one option, life has graced me with another.  After months of hoping and praying, I am finally getting access to a promising new therapy to treat my progressing cancer,” says the 45-year-old attorney for a non-profit in Texas that works with survivors of domestic violence and abuse. As we reportedly previously, BioMarin is currently testing a so-called PARP inhibitor – a protein that helps repair breaks in DNA – but enrollment in the ovarian arm of the study is supposedly closed. Although the FDA certified Sloan for compassionate use, BioMarin repeatedly refused to provide the treatment to her and expressed concerns that its experimental BMN-673 may not be safe or effective. With the help of friends and the support of her physicians at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Sloan responded by launching a highly effective grassroots campaign that quickly went viral. Within weeks, she appeared on network television, attracted the support of high-profile politicians such as Newt Gingrich and ga...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs