Health Minister Eliezer Shostak has announced that he is giving the green light to the medical profession for the controlled use of the Israeli-developed anti-cancer drug, DMBG, denied to Reuven Maayan, a terminal cancer patient, because of legal complications.
Maayan died Saturday, a day after the Supreme Court, to which he had appealed for permission to be given the drug, issued its decision upholding the ban on legal grounds.
Shostak said he was giving the go-ahead order at the express request of Premier Menachem Begin, who was reportedly deeply moved by dramatic and emotional radio and television interviews with Maayan only days before his death.
But the Weizmann Institute of Science, where the drug is being tested, said yesterday its researchers thought it was still too early to license the drug for human use, as a number of animal experiments still remained to be completed. But an Institute scientist said the drug appeared not to be dangerous. It has reportedly been administered to several cancer patients abroad.
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