A drug company is refusing to give a dying 7-year-old boy experimental medication because doing so would eat into its profits. This is one of those stories where you realize the conflict between what is right, and what is profitable, is just too great in our society.
Josh Hardy has taken on and beaten cancer, but is nows fighting a viral infection he developed after a recent bone-marrow transplant His family turned to social media to pressure pharmaceutical maker Chimerix into providing the antiviral drug brincidofovir, which could well save his young life.
The company has already turned down multiple requests by Josh’s doctors for the unapproved drug, and thousands of requests made by friends, family members, and other supporters have failed to shift the companies position on the matter.
“Our son will die without this drug,” said the boy’s father, Todd Hardy. “We’re begging them to give it to us.”
But Kenneth Moch, CEO of Chimerix said that the company cannot agree to provide the drug, because it would then be obligated to share the drug with other patients — and according to Moch, that would simply cost too much.
“If this were just one patient wanting this drug, then this would be a very different question,” Moch said. “But it’s yes to all or no to all.”
“We have great compassion for this family, but this is not just about a single boy,” said Moch, who admits he would feel “horrible” if Josh dies.
A medical ethicist, in a statement to Raw Story, said he understands both viewpoints. Arthur Caplan, of the New York University Langone Medical Center.
“I have huge sympathy for the family. I think they are right to try and see what they can get for their child.”