Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA spoke recently before the Subcommittee on Health/Committee on Energy and Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives.

janet-woodcock-imageThis was part of an initiative that is designed to support patient-focused drug development, assuring that patients’ viewpoints and needs are taken into consideration and incorporated by drug makers into the development process.

This is especially important for patients with rare diseases like GIST, to assure that their voices are heard, and so that life-saving treatments that come about through scientific breakthroughs are not unnecessarily delayed in the development process.

Dr. Woodcock’s full statement on the patient perspective can be found here.