Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs

The Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, incorporated in Virginia in 2001. According to its website, its main mission is "to help cancer patients and others with life threatening illnesses."

Recently, the Alliance has been involved in a legal case, Abigail Alliance v. von Eschenbach, in which it is represented by the Washington Legal Foundation. Their argument in the case is that terminal cancer patients have a right to access experimental medications before they receive FDA approval. On August 7, 2007, in an 8-2 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed an earlier ruling in favor of the Alliance.

In 2008, the Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear their appealcite web |url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080114/ts_alt_afp/ushealthcourt_080114172556 |title=No right to experimental drugs for dying patients: Supreme Court - Yahoo! News |accessdate=2008-01-14 |format= |work=] This decision left standing the appellate court decision that terminally ill patients have no legal right to demand "a potentially toxic drug with no proven therapeutic benefit."

References

External links

* [http://abigail-alliance.org/ Abigail Alliance website]
* [http://www.wlf.org/Litigating/casedetail.asp?detail=266 Washington Legal Foundation case detail for Abigail Alliance v. Eschenbach]