Addressing the Barriers to Accessing Experimental Therapies

Expanded access—a means of allowing people with serious and life-threatening conditions who fail to meet the enrollment criteria of a clinical trial to gain access to experimental therapies —has become an area of growing interest among the rare disease community. Though so-called right-to-try legislation has allowed patients to bypass regulators, it has done little to address the true obstacles patients face in getting access to these therapies. The Expanded Access Summit, which will be help January 27 to 29 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., will bring together regulators, drug developers, patients, and other stakeholders interested in expanded access. We spoke to Jess Rabourn, CEO of WideTrial and executive producer of the Expanded Access Summit (easummit.net), about the promise of expanded access, how it can be used to improve the clinical development of therapies, and how to address some of the remaining barriers to patient access of experimental therapies.