Family backs 'medical innovation bill'

The family of a teenager, who died after being told she was too young to take a promising new cancer drug, is backing proposals for a law, designed to make it easier for doctors to try new treatments.

Chloe Drury from Purley in Surrey was barred from a drugs trial because she was just a few months short of her 18th birthday.

Her family says she was an adult size and weight - and that her doctors were keen for her to take the PARPi drugs.

But the drugs company BioMarin would not allow her to take part in the clinic trial because she was technically still a child. Chloe had to wait until her 18th birthday to start on the PARPi medication. But by then, her family feel, it was too late. She died a month later.

Chloe's mother Debbie Binner believes that her daughter's treatment reflects a wider problem with the culture of the medical profession - where doctors are encouraged to "play it safe" rather than finding new treatments.

She is supporting a new Medical Innovation Bill - drawn up by Maurice Saatchi, whose own wife died of cancer - which got its first reading in the House of Commons today.

It hopes to encourage doctors to try new techniques, by giving them some protection from being sued if it goes wrong.

A spokesman for drug company BioMarin said:

Chloe's mother Debbie Binner spoke to our reporter Ruth Banks.