Alexander Masters’s diary: The idea that could unlock dozens of new cancer drugs

Two million pounds can buy you consideration for a place on a medical trial! Every year untold numbers of potential cancer therapies are abandoned. There is simply not enough money to test all the promising drugs and interventions. To my astonishment, I’ve had an idea about how to curb this appalling waste. I am not a medic, I am a biographer and illustrator, and until two years ago I had no idea what a medical trial was; but my proposal (published in the Wellcome Trust’s new e-magazine Mosaic) has been backed by leading ethicists, doctors, researchers and medical lawyers. The suggestion is this: any rich patient who pays for a human trial of a potential medication should (if they meet the entry criteria for the study) be offered a place on the trial just like any other patient. I call it the dating agency model. It is not a way to give a rich person access to cutting-edge research that the poor can’t afford, because all such early-stage trials have to involve around 20 other patients.