FDA Blocked Melanoma Drug as Confusion Reigned Under Makary

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, medical director of the Atlantic Health System’s oncology service. A Wall Street Journal editorial assailed the ruling, noting that it “will have a chilling effect on drug development.” Despite the benefit to some patients, oncologists and pharmaceutical industry analysts say there were legitimate concerns about the treatment, called RP1, that may have led the FDA to reject it in any event.

The company, they noted, had ignored repeated FDA suggestions that it change the design of the trial used to seek approval for the medication. The FDA’s decision would have raised few eyebrows before the current administration took power.