CBSSM involved in national effort to improve access to experimental treatments

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Mon, July 30, 2018

Patients fighting life-threatening illnesses who have run out of conventional options will get a chance to try some of the most cutting-edge treatments available, through a national effort that just received nearly $4.8 million in funding from the federal government.

Based at the University of Michigan, in partnership with Duke University, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the University of Rochester, the effort will build a national framework to help more patients gain access to experimental drugs, devices and biologics. It is funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The partner universities will build a national framework for more efficient, consistent and widespread use of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Expanded Access process, to help more hospitals offer experimental options to their patients and gather data on the impact.

MICHR will coordinate the new project, called TEAMSS for Transforming Expanded Access to Maximize Support and Study.

CBSSM will be involved to help ensure that use of Expanded Access is done in an ethical and responsible way, so that patients who have exhausted all their other options understand the risks involved in trying an unproven therapy.