It has been a bad month for patients battling with the authorities to win access to new drugs.
In the UK, people with mild Alzheimer’s disease lost a High Court bid to win access to donepezil (marketed as Aricept), a drug that delays the onset of symptoms by increasing the availability of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. And in the US, the Abigail Alliance, which represents people with cancer, lost its battle to obtain and use experimental anti-cancer drugs before they have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The UK Alzheimer’s Society had teamed up with…
