Advances in drug research over the years have resulted in the development of blockbuster drugs, which have increased the life expectancy of mankind. In the past decade, scores of patients across the globe suffering from rare or chronic ailments had limited treatment options due to unavailability / pending approval of life-saving drugs in their countries. From a legal standpoint, a drug is only permitted to be obtained and used by a patient once such drug has been granted the requisite approvals from the requisite drug regulatory authorities of such country after following proper clinical trial protocols that establish safety and efficacy of such drugs. With rising costs of drug trials, not every drug is submitted for approval in every country yet disease conditions that warrant use thereof still exist. Following representations from medical professionals and stakeholders to cater to such situations, drug regulators realized the need to ensure that such drugs are made available to those who need them irrespective of approval status. Currently, numerous expressions such as ‘usage on compassionate grounds’, ‘expanded access’ and ‘preapproval use’ exist to describe this concept and are used interchangeably[1].
