Compassionate use programs enable patients suffering from serious, immediately life-threatening diseases to gain access to experimental drugs outside of clinical trials. For many patients, compassionate use may be the only way to access potentially life-altering therapies.

When we met Ydilia 5 years ago in Peru, she had Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer and was given only 6 months to live. Compassionate use was the only thing that could help her. Ydilia was lucky; her physician went to great lengths to make sure she had access to treatments that could possibly improve her life.