Media Shames Drug Company CEO Into Providing Treatment For Dying Child

I don’t have any love in my heart for bigwig drug company CEOs with an agenda, and this recent story only proves my point. A seven-year-old cancer survivor in Virginia is desperately in need of life-saving medication. Josh Hardy is suffering from a viral infection that developed after a bone marrow transplant. Josh has battled cancer four separate times in his seven-year lifespan.

As luck would have it, North Carolina pharmaceutical company Chimerex produces just the drug Josh needs””medical professionals believe that Brincidofovir could clear up this life-threatening infection within just two weeks. Though this drug is not yet FDA approved, it has already been given to hundreds of patients in “compassionate use” allowance.

So why couldn’t this dying boy get the life-saving drug he needed? If you’ve ever dealt with insurance companies or drug companies before, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that Chimerex CEO Kenneth Moch flat-out refused:

Previously Moch said that saying yes to Josh would mean saying yes to many more patients, draining the company’s resources and delaying the time it will take for the drug to progress through the formal studies required before it can be given FDA approval and help many more future patients.

However, the company received $72 million in federal funding to develop Brincidofovir.

And:

Moch was accused of hanging up the phone to a charity that offered up the $50,000 needed to buy it for the child.

Dead-inside CEO refuses life-saving treatment for dying child, and media onslaught ensues. In an utterly predictable turn of events, CEO Moch couldn’t take the heat. Moch changed his mind and has now decided to provide Josh with the life-saving anti-viral treatment his family has been begging for.

Moch is trying to put a positive spin on his previously heartless actions: “Kenneth Moch announced on Tuesday night that his firm will begin a pilot trial for the drug on Wednesday – with Josh Hardy the program’s first patient.”

Thankfully, this story has the beginnings of a happy ending. Still, Moch doesn’t deserve a pat on the back. With a little coercion, he did what any caring person would have done in the first place.

(Image: ZerborShutterstock)