Retina-Vitreous
2008 , Vol 16 , Num 4
Ethical Evaluation of Off-Label Drug use in Turkey: Bevacizumab as an Axample
1Ankara Atatürk Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, Göz Kliniği, Ankara, Uzm. Dr.2Hacettepe Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Tıp Etiği ve Tarihi A.D., Ankara, Asist. Dr.
3Hacettepe Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Tıp Etiği ve Tarihi A.D., Ankara, Doç. Dr. Bevacizumab was used to inhibit neovascularisation as an systemic agent succesfully especialy in cancer treatment. Its use as an off-label drug in treatment of some ophthalmological diseases was increased in recent years. Off-label drug treatment can be described as use of a therapeutic agent for indications other than approved indications. Bevacizumab is approved for only chemotherapy of colon cancer and its ophthalmological use is an off-label treatment. Bevacizumab is not the single anti vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agent against neovascularisation, but its use is more prevalent. Most important reason for its common usage is its less expensive than the other agents. However decisive scientific data regarding to safety and effectivity of Bevacizumab’s off-label usage are lacking, and only short-term results of Bevacizumab trials are available. These points causes some ethical problems. In these treatments two basic principles of medical ethics, beneficence and justice, are in conflict. In conclusion, off-label treatments is very complex procesess and they have multilateral participants. Only initiatives of doctors are not sufficient to reach a solution, in stead a satisfactory solution can only be reached via an extensive discussion by all participitating sides including: doctors, patients, drug manufacturers, social security agencies. Keywords : Bevacizumab, off-label drug treatments, ethic