Progress on Dual Tracking?

One hundred leading European officials in health regulation, the pharmaceutical industry, and the health media will gather in Stockholm March 27 to discuss a new proposal that would enable patients to gain faster access to life-saving drugs not yet approved by regulators.

One track of this new proposal, known as "Dual Tracking," provides that patients and their doctors try to minimize risk by using only approved drugs as they do now. On the other track, patients and doctors can choose not-yet-approved drugs that have passed safety trials. Patients would be able to balance their own preferences for risk with substantial new opportunities for health improvement. (Quoted here.)

See Bart Madden's More Choices, Better Health (pdf) for a very good explanation and defense of the dual tracking proposal.