Rescue Me: The Challenge Of Compassionate Use In The Social Media Era

TweetThe Development of Brincidofovir And Its Possible Use To Treat Josh Hardy Last March 4, seven-year old Josh Hardy lay critically ill in the intensive care unit at St Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee with a life-threatening adenovirus infection. His weakened immune system was unable to control the infection, a complication of a bone marrow stem cell transplant he needed as a result of treatments for several different cancers since he was 9 months old. His physicians tried to treat the adenovirus with an anti-viral agent, Vistide (IV cidofovir), but had to stop due to dialysis-dependent renal failure. They were aware of another anti-viral in Phase 3 clinical development, brincidofovir, an oral compound chemically related to Vistide. In earlier clinical testing brincidofovir had shown the potential for enhanced antiviral potency and a more favorable safety profile. Chimerix (where one of us, Moch, was CEO), a 55 person North Carolina-based biopharmaceutical company, had previously made brincidofovir available to more than 430 critically ill patients in an expanded access program for the treatment of serious or life-threatening DNA viral infections, including adenovirus as well as herpes viruses (such as cytomegalovirus) and polyomaviruses.  This program started in 2009 as a series of individual physician-sponsored emergency INDs — investigational new drug exemptions issued in physician-certified compassionate use situations. The program evolved via wo...
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