Miracle drug: Brazil approves never-tested cancer medicine:

BackgroundBrazil recently approved synthetic phosphoetanolamine, a popularly dubbed ‘cancer pill’, a substance that has been shown to kill cancer cells in lab animal models but was not yet formally accessed in humans, and thus despite the existence of any evidence of its efficacy and safety.MethodsThe authors describe the recent decision of Brazil to aprove phosphoetanolamine in the context of growing ‘judicialization’ to promote access to medicines and thus reinforcing a growing sense of legal uncertainty.ResultsThe approval of phosphoetanolamine despite the existence of any evidence of its efficacy and safety represents to the authors one of the saddest and surrealistic episodes in Brazil’s recent public health history. Brazil’s current economic crisis is fueling the ‘judicialization’ to promote access to medicines and thus reinforcing a growing sense of legal uncertainty in the context of rising economic constrains and a progressive failing state. The authors state that the Phosphoetanolamine’s approva...