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Cancer Cure Coalition Chief Addresses Right-To-Live Day Rally 9/18/07, along with Frank Burroughs and Bruce Towers
Abigail Alliance - FDA Rally September 18, 2007
The Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs has been around for six years and at the forefront of pushing for earlier access and approvals for lifesaving and life-extending drugs. We have been pushing for Provenge for a few years now. We have also been pushing for access to GVAX. I started the Abigail Alliance a few hours after my daughter Abigail’s funeral in 2001, after an experience much like the one being repeated today. Drugs that could have extended or even saved her life were being held beyond reach by the FDA – in fact by some of the very same bureaucrats that are doing the same thing to men with prostate cancer by withholding approval of Provenge today. The FDA does not have safety issues with Provenge. The FDA is saying they are not absolutely sure of the efficacy of Provenge – they are only 94 percent sure. I would like Dr. Richard Pazdur and Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach to explain in person, one by one, to all the thousands of fathers and brothers with prostate cancer, why the FDA should stand as a barrier between terminally-ill men and their doctors - between men facing death from their disease - and a drug that can help them live longer, better lives? Longer lives with good quality of life? Given the years of evidence supporting the safety and efficacy of Provenge, should a disconnected bureaucrat sitting at a desk in this building decide what treatment you receive, or should you and your doctor? Do you want the FDA in your way - or your doctor at your side? Do you want the FDA or your doctor? The Abigail Alliance and our allies have been saying for six years that we need change NOW at the FDA. When do we need change? (NOW!!) When do we need change? Here is another of many examples of the FDA’s deadly track record. The Abigail Alliance started pushing for access to Erbitux for colon cancer and head and neck cancer three and a half years before it was approved for colon cancer and four and a half years before it was approved for head and neck cancer. With the FDA in the way, 179,000 people died of colon cancer and head and neck cancer without a chance. Every drug for cancer and other serious life-threatening illnesses that the Abigail Alliance has pushed for earlier access to in our six year history was eventually approved by the FDA, but usually years later than those approvals should have come! Many lives could have been saved or extended, if there had been earlier access to these drugs! The FDA and their very few, but powerful supporters, just don’t get it. The FDA and their few, but powerful, supporters just don’t get it. Does the FDA get it? (NO!!) Does the FDA get it? The FDA and their vested supporters at ASCO (American Association of Clinical Oncology) and the NCCS (National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship) are opposing you and hundreds of thousands of other patient’s rights to determine the means by which you responsibly pursue life. ASCO does not represent the majority of practicing doctors who want better access to new therapies for patients fighting for their lives. Does ASCO have your interests in mind? (NO!!) Does ASCO have your interests in mind? The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) has an interesting name with the word survivorship in it. We want you to be survivors too. Does the NCCS have your interests in mind? (NO!!) Does the NCCS have your interests in mind? Do men with prostate cancer want to be survivors too? Do you want to stay alive too? In addition to prostate cancer patients, we are unnecessarily losing chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients, because the FDA is blocking access to the efficacious drug Genasense. The FDA must get out of the way of people fighting for their lives. Who should get out of the way? Who should get out of the way? FDA --- Approve Provenge NOW!!! Dr. von Eshenbach, tear down this wall! As a direct result of the efforts of the Abigail Alliance, we have the ACCESS Act that would correct the very problems we are addressing today. Contact your U.S. Representatives and Senators and ask them to support the lifesaving and life-extending ACCESS Act. What do we need to pass? What do we need to pass? Let me leave you with two quotes, one from a man who defined liberty and another from a person who, for me, defined compassion and integrity. “The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.” Thomas Jefferson “Success is temporary. When all is said and done, all you have left is your character.” Abigail Kathleen Burroughs, 1998 valedictorian speech For more information on the law suit and rally, go to www.CareToLive.com
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The
Power of Two Update - How Anne Became Healthy
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