<story><title>French drug trial leaves six hospitalized, one brain-dead</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/16/world/europe/french-drug-trial-hospitalization.html?_r=0</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>kauffj</author><text>The unfortunate nature of the seen and the unseen is that we will always notice the times we approved a drug too early or tested too aggressively, but we will never notice the deaths that happen because we were too timid or cautious in our approach.&lt;p&gt;While this case should be studied to ascertain whether process changes could prevent it, the solution is absolutely not further testing, control, and regulation. Hundreds of thousands of people already die or suffer every year because of the paternalistic, conservative policies governing medicine.</text></comment>
<story><title>French drug trial leaves six hospitalized, one brain-dead</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/16/world/europe/french-drug-trial-hospitalization.html?_r=0</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>cstross</author><text>Note from the NYTimes:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Contrary to several reports in the French news media, the drug was not a cannabis-based painkiller, Ms. Touraine said.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Early reports in The Guardian, the BBC, and elsewhere called it a cannabinoid-based painkiller. (That sounded rather implausible because (a) cannabinoids have a &lt;i&gt;ridiculously&lt;/i&gt; high therapeutic index -- ratio of medically effective dose to toxic dose -- and (b) with cannabis decriminalization spreading internationally, the commercial benefit of patenting a drug in the same space as a cheap non-proprietary alternative would appear to be small.)&lt;p&gt;Edit: The Guardian amended their piece to state that it was a monoclonal antibody targeting the brain&amp;#x27;s endocannabinoid receptors. (Interesting idea, but Mabs have some really lethal failure modes, notably triggering a cytokine storm in some cases, cf. TGN1412.)</text></comment>