FDA Blocked Melanoma Drug as Confusion Reigned Under Makary

FDA blocked melanoma drug as confusion reigned under Makary

A third of patients in a clinical trial had tumors shrink while taking a genetically engineered treatment known as RP1.

FDA Blocked Melanoma Drug as Confusion Reigned Under Makary - Health Care Today

The FDA’s recent decision to withhold approval of a new skin cancer treatment fell like a hammer on doctors who treat melanoma and patients who saw that the drug had prolonged the lives of a third of the participants in a clinical trial. “It was devastating news,” said Trisha Wise-Draper, a dermatologist at the University of Cincinnati who had patients enrolled in the trial. “This is life or death for maybe 2,000 patients,” added Eric Whitman, m…