Off-label Prescribing: Justifying Unapproved Medicine

Today’s medicines are regulated for their efficacy and safety and, once approved, they can be marketed for certain uses as justified by the data. Regulatory bodies in developed countries are constituted by legal statute and operate as parts of government, ostensibly in the interests of the people as patients.

But once approved, medicines can be used for any purpose the prescriber thinks fit and appropriate for the patient. One in five prescriptions is therefore written outside regulatory pu...