New York Woman Sues to Keep Taking Drug that Failed Test

A New York woman is suing a Virginia drug company in an unusual attempt to get access to an experimental drug that failed a clinical trial.

Angeline Cacchillo, of Schenectady, says the discontinued drug Iplex was a godsend during the months she took it to combat symptoms of myotonic muscular dystrophy.

The illness had made it difficult to do simple things like buttoning her own shirt, but Cacchillo says after a few months on the medication her condition vastly improved.

Others didn’t do as well and after a disappointing study in 2008, the drug’s maker, Insmed, called off further research.

A lawyer for the company told a federal judge in Albany Friday that it has only a little Iplex left and all of it has been promised to other patients.

The judge said he would rule within a week.