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Expanded access is a pathway to access unregistered medicines if there are no registered treatments available and patients cannot enroll in clinical trials. Expanded access may serve as a last resort for patients who are in dire need of treatment options and cannot await the completion of drug development and for patients who may benefit from treatments that are not (or not anymore) registered in their jurisdiction. Unregistered medicine can be acquired via named-patient pathways ('Leveren op Artsenverklaring') or via group programs ('Compassionate Use Programma's). We describe the origins of expanded access and its daily practice in the Netherlands. We observe an increasing trend in expanded access requests. The potential risks these treatments provide, the possibility of ceasing further treatment and the preferences of individual patients should all inform the decision whether or not to pursue expanded access.

In their open peer commentary: “Making It Count: Extracting Real World Data from Compassionate Use and Expanded Access Programs” (Rozenberg and Greenbaum 2020), Rozenberg and Greenbaum discuss impo...