Better drug access for terminal patients

The distinguished statistician Les Halpin died last month from motor neuron disease, aged 56. He was the founder of the Empower: Access to Medicine campaign to improve the availability of

experimental therapies and to accelerate drug approval and licensing for people with life-threatening illnesses (see go.nature.com/v2nr3y). After his diagnosis in May 2011, Halpin was

surprised by the lack of treatments for people with his disease. This led him to ponder, from a statistical viewpoint, the regulatory systems that we apply to biomedical innovation, noting

that they are much more risk-averse than the patients they are intended to serve. He believed that as a result, new medicines take longer to develop and are more costly than necessary. His

campaign has enabled drugs to get to market faster and more cheaply (see, for example, go.nature.com/gmgcyu). With support from academics, politicians and industrial scientists, he developed

the Halpin Protocol (see go.nature.com/3z2wkd), which has sparked debate in the UK Parliament. Halpin's campaign to overcome barriers to health-care translation will continue, aiming

to lower them objectively and safely through increased flexibility in drug development and regulation. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * University of Oxford, and CASMI, Oxford,

UK David A. Brindley * Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Massachusetts, USA David A. Brindley * CASMI, Oxford, UK Richard W. Barker * University of Cambridge, UK Peter J. Lachmann Authors * David

A. Brindley View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Richard W. Barker View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed 

Google Scholar * Peter J. Lachmann View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to David A. Brindley. RIGHTS AND

PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Brindley, D., Barker, R. & Lachmann, P. Better drug access for terminal patients. _Nature_ 502, 38 (2013).

https://doi.org/10.1038/502038c Download citation * Published: 02 October 2013 * Issue Date: 03 October 2013 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/502038c SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the

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