TPD officer's wife dying of cancer; please click on video

**Diana Davis** · 04-18-2012, 12:09 PM

Pardon the interruption. I hope it's okay for me to post here.

As some of you may already know, the wife of one of your colleagues is dying. Brian Gant's wife, Darlene, has Stage 4 breast cancer. (Brian does not know I'm posting here.) They have an 11-year-old son.

A promising new drug called pertuzumab is under FDA review right now. The earliest the FDA will approve it is June 8. The agency won't release it early for compassionate use. That is unacceptable!

Without the drug, Darlene is likely to die within weeks. With the drug, she has a good chance of stabilizing or even turning her dire health situation around. So right now her life is a horrible game of beat the clock: Will she live long enough to get the life-saving drug she needs? Or will she die just days before the drug is approved?

Asking the drug manufacturer for help didn't work. The FDA is fast-tracking the drug approval process but it's not fast enough for Darlene and other frail patients like her. So it's time for guerilla tactics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC5v_b2RZ-w

Please take a moment to watch even 30 seconds of this video. The more views it gets, the more attention it will attract. If it goes viral, maybe the FDA will be persuaded to release pertuzumab early for compassionate use. I'm so angry that a promising drug is being withheld from a dying woman. The drug will almost certainly be approved. What's the harm in releasing it early to the most desperate patients?

Thank you for listening.

Diana, a friend of the Gants

**Trunk Monkey** · 04-18-2012, 10:40 PM

Clicked and viewed.

**Diana Davis** · 04-20-2012, 03:21 PM

Thank you for your support! Darlene's video has been viewed 4,800 times since April 16.

I'm told that the short link I posted before doesn't work for everyone. Here's a longer version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC5v_b2RZ-w&con text=C447277bADvjVQa1P pcFNi9x4YC2QL0TbArI8kfxIfmoDvmYeZ_h4

**TPD2007** · 04-20-2012, 04:16 PM

.
[youtube:1o9ntynu]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC5v_b2RZ-w[/youtube:1o9ntynu]
.

**Diana Davis** · 04-21-2012, 12:31 AM

Team Darlene rocks! She will get the drug she needs after all! Genentech has agreed to release pertuzumab for compassionate use. Thanks to everyone who helped promote Darlene Gant's YouTube video. It's been viewed 5,000 times in four days!