"Patient #1" -- Blogging His Melanoma Journey: Pembrolizumab For Free!

Please just go read this. He blogs at Patient #1 -- reprinted by Philly.com today -- link is broken.

He talks of non-clinical trial based, but entirely free access to MK-3475 -- for Stage IV melanoma patients. Google it in Google News.

Back later today -- train-blogging -- then court! Ugh!Here's a bit -- but do go read it all:

. . .It is part of Merck’s Expanded Access Program, which provides breakthrough medications to patients before regulatory approval and outside the traditional clinical trial setting. Many patients are getting shut out of clinical trials that could provide life-saving care; pre-conditions (like brain metastases) or eligibility criteria are not met, or spaces in the study filled up. Having a game-changing treatment like PD-1 sitting on the sideline, waiting for trials to complete and approvals to be granted, means that melanoma patients will die with the potential antidote sitting there, just out of reach. It is incredibly frustrating and ethically difficult to digest as a fellow patient; it must be impossible if you are one of the many who could not get this drug. . .

Go out today, and be excellent -- to one another.