‘The response defies belief’: Year of inaction leaves children at risk from bad cancer drugs By Rosa Furneaux and Laura Margottini — TBIJJan. 25, 2024

https://www.statnews.com/2024/01/25/chemotherapy-asparaginase-cancer-drug-investigation/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=291354684&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--0LYKT6mE0JnvJS7W1h9L35E47l0pzaUvmrnW_KKhX33UY_lhY6FCEl071LRoSWumFO5jjwJJnjQFyoLDEaO_VVHLWQA&utm_content=291354684&utm_source=hs_email Last January, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, in partnership with STAT, revealed that at least a dozen brands of asparaginase, a key childhood chemotherapy drug, had failed quality tests, putting an estimated 70,000 children in more than 90 countries at risk. Update: A year later, almost nothing has changed. The WHO has issued no alert about the problematic cancer drug and national drug regulators around the world have not taken meaningful action, with both sides claiming communication breakdowns and a lack of evidence. Researchers in the U.S. and Africa have begun developing cheap, simple tests allowing doctors to check the quality of asparaginase. “This issue is something that needs to be addressed urgently,” said Gregory Reaman, a scientific director at the U.S. National Cancer Institute. “These are children who are already sick, and have the potential for being cured. And yet they are given substandard drugs.” Read more. https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2023-01-25/the-drug-was-meant-to-save-childrens-lives-instead-theyre-dying?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=291354684&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--2Qguqe9YxeKYTXWBE3p60oaiDjEM88YDwrK_tigm1OUl_vVRGSgvTcF49RUJ6TFTXzMuC--OZsxymRY82QsL2lNjXRg&utm_content=291354684&utm_source=hs_email