Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 07/2008

Drugs Kennedy Needs

John E. Calfee, Paul H. Rubin

June 2008

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

Abstract

Senator Edward M. Kennedy's (D-Mass.) recent diagnosis of a glioma, a malignant brain tumor, puts the spotlight on Food and Drug Administration (FDA) drug approval policies. The authors argue that the progress being made in clinical drug trials for glioma is too slow. The FDA's failure to approve some of the most promising drugs comes at the expense of victims who could really benefit from taking them and who are invisible to all but a few.