[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 56 (Monday, April 29, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H4115]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 FDA DOES NOT SERVE PUBLIC BY DENYING TREATMENT OF LAST RESORT PURSUED 
                       BY TERMINALLY ILL PATIENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, many of us have heard from our constituents 
regarding the plight of cancer patients under the care of Dr. 
Stainislaw Burzynski of Houston, TX. My office has received many 
letters and phone calls concerning this matter, which is why I am on 
the floor today. Recently, the House Committee on Commerce, of which I 
am a sitting member, held a compelling hearing into the difficulty 
patients have in getting his experimental Antineoplaston therapy due to 
the FDA. Whatever the FDA's concerns are, the problem remains they are 
denying patents with life-threatening diseases access to this therapy. 
Many only have a few months to a year to live and this treatment is 
essentially their last hope.

  Following those Commerce hearings, the FDA met with members of the 
committee and assurances were given that Dr. Burzynski's patients and 
those seeking his treatment would be accommodated. Unfortunately, his 
patients on clinical trials are on hold and dozens of terminally ill 
cancer patients who want his lifesaving therapy cannot get it. For 
whatever reasons the FDA claims to defend this situation, they fail to 
recognize that people's lives and rights are being trampled in this 
process. I do not see how the FDA is serving the public when, by its 
actions it prevents a child with a brain tumor or a young woman with 
non-Hodgkin's lumphoma, from getting a treatment these individuals and 
their families have been informed about and have freely chosen to 
pursue. In essence, the FDA is telling someone battling a disease like 
cancer that they cannot have a potential life-saving treatment. For 
many of these patients, this treatment is their last resort after being 
told to get their affairs in order and essentially wait to die.
  Legislation has been introduced with wide bipartisan support by Mr. 
DeFazio of Oregon, to address this problem, called the Access to 
Medical Treatment Act (H.R. 2019). It has 40 Members in the House 
cosponsoring this legislation and has both Senate Minority Leader 
Daschle along with Senate Majority Leader Dole and a dozen Senate 
cosponsors on a similar bill in the Senate.
  Mr. Speaker. I just want to say that as we continue down the path 
toward FDA reform, let us be mindful of patients with life-threatening 
diseases who are grasping at their last hopes to continue to live.

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