RFK Jr. Faces Backlash Over FDA Rejection of Lifesaving Cancer Drug
President Trump’s Food and Drug Administration has decided not to approve a skin cancer treatment that could save lives, drawing backlash from doctors.On Wednesday, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Congress that he had nothing to do with the decision to withhold approval for Replimune’s drug, RP1, which treats melanoma, shifting responsibility to FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary. “This decision comes out of FDA, and we trust the process there. And I’ve been told by Marty Makary that every panel that looked at that drug unanimously voted against it … because it does not appear to work,” Kennedy said to the Senate Finance Committee. This is disputed by many oncologists, who pointed out in a Wall Street Journal op-ed this week that an initial panel approved the drug before being overruled by the head of biologics, Dr. Vinay Prasad. They also disputed Kennedy’s claim at a House hearing last week that Replimune did a “one arm trial, and all the people who were tested also received a chemotherapy drug, so we don’t know what the effect was.” In reality, none of the patients in the trial received chemotherapy; instead they received a different form of immunotherapy, the oncologists noted. A longtime melanoma researcher who worked on the trial, Dr. Anna Pavlick, told the Journal, “Honestly, there was no doubt in our minds whatsoever when we completed this study and we saw the results, that this was going to be approved as a wonderful alternative for our patients because they have no options.“I have patients who have been treated with this drug that are still alive today who would otherwise be dead,” Pavlick added. Dr. Eric Whitman of the Atlantic Health System Cancer Care backed up Pavlick’s statement. “When you talk to the melanoma experts, people who treat lots and lots of melanoma patients like myself, it’s obvious that this is beneficial to patients and it’s saving lives or it has potential to save lives,” Whitman said. “The community of patients and doctors don’t understand the reasoning” for the FDA’s rejection. Under Kennedy’s leadership, HHS has made several questionable decisions to hurt public health, including blocking a Centers for Disease Control study showing that the Covid-19 vaccine significantly reduced emergency room visits and hospitalizations this past winter. RP1 shows significant potential in combating a fatal cancer, and its rejection fits into a shocking pattern of decisions from the Trump administration that seem to encourage the spread of cancer.