An organization scouring thousands of existing drugs to see if any can cure hard-to-treat diseases has a powerful new ally: Janet Woodcock, who for decades was one of the most influential figures at the Food and Drug Administration.
The group, Every Cure, is led by physician David Fajgenbaum, who has told his own story again and again: When he was a young medical student, he came down with a rare disease that turned his athletic, football-honed body bloated and weak and nearly killed him not once, but five times. He was read last rites until his own research led his doctors to try an existing drug, the transplant medicine sirolimus, which sent his disease into remission.
That effort led him initially to start a patient advocacy group focused on his own condition, Castleman disease. But his aperture slowly widened; Every Cure is seeking treatments that could help patients with countless rare diseases.
Woodcock, who retired from the FDA in January, has now joined the group’s board.
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