In Push for Treatment, a Patient Organization Becomes a Trial Sponsor

RARECast

Pazopanib, a targeted therapy marketed as Votrient, is used to treat certain cancers. The drug has shown promise as a potential treatment for the rare genetic blood vessel disorder hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), but when a change in ownership of the drug took place, efforts to develop the drug for HHT ended. That led the patient advocacy organization Cure HHT to step in and sponsor a phase 2/3 trial on its own. We spoke to Marianne Clancy, executive director and senior director of strategic partnerships for Cure HHT about the organization’s decision to sponsor a clinical trial, why it felt it was necessary to do, and what other patient organizations can learn from its experience.