Although the traditional nearly decade-long clinical trial timelines completely collapsed during COVID, this truncating was not necessarily novel. Precedent exists for accelerating approval timelines during health emergencies such as the AIDs/HIV epidemic, where Compound S, a re-make of AZT, or azidothymidine, originally developed to fight cancer, became controversially fast-tracked after the discovery that it could block HIV activity. Likewise, when potentially lifesaving drugs are discovered, patient advocacy groups may petition to accelerate review timelines. A recent example is the September 2022 approval of RELYVRIO, a drug for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) or Lou Gehrig’s disease that slows the loss of physical function.
