My dad is dying of lymphoma. He has tried and suffered through multiple treatments over the last year with no success. His only option left is Glofitamab from pharmaceutical company Roche.

Glofitamab has shown promising results in clinical trials to date for patients with relapsed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (it had similar response rate as CAR T-cell therapy which has been approved in Australia). However it has not yet been approved by TGA.

For patients that are not eligible for clinical trials (like my dad), the only other option is for pharmaceutical companies to grant access on a compassionate basis. Pharmaceutical companies like Roche promotes their compassionate use programs on their website. While we applaud companies supporting these programs and saving lives, there are generally no clear and transparent rules provided on assessment criteria and pharmaceutical companies do not commit to the number of patients they will support. This often gives false hope to terminally ill patients - who are powerless and at the mercy of pharmaceutical companies to grant one last hope of survival. When your loved one is dying, this is not good enough.

Like in my dad's case - leading doctors in the hematology field have strongly advocated the use of Glofitamab for my dad. Our doctor's initial discussion with Roche indicated good chances of approval of Glofitamab. Given this we paid thousands of dollars and spent weeks trying another drug produced by Roche - a requirement from Roche in order to apply for Glofitamab. Unfortunately, despite all that, the request was rejected by Roche. 

This was my dad's last option. He does not have time to wait years for the approval of Glofitamab. Everyone should have the right to try to save themselves and their loved ones if the alternative of not trying is death. In my dad's case 1) a number of well-respected doctors in the field provided their support for Glofitamab for my dad (the advice was provided directly to Roche), 2) we understand and accept all risks, and 3) we will bare the financial burden if required. Why can we not have the right to try?

We are asking for:

1) Roche to reconsider their decision to reject my dad's application for Glofitamab

2) Increase oversight and scrutiny on compassionate use programs and hold pharmaceutical companies to account when they advertise these programs. Give terminally ill patients GENIUNE right to try. We need to give terminally ill patients other avenues to access potentially life saving drugs/treatments - pharmaceutical companies are a business and will not have individual patients best interest as their priority.

This petition may get no where but this is the only thing we can do to save our dad who has always protected us. Please take a few seconds to sign the petition and share with family and friends if possible. Please help us save him. 

At the very least we hope this raises awareness of the limited options terminally ill patients have to get access to drugs/treatments that could save their lives. Tragedy can befall when least expected and it could be too late to take action then (as our family now know). 

Thank you all.

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My dad's battle with cancer and treatment...a long story....

• He first showed symptoms at the end of last year when he had trouble going to the toilet. The doctor initially thought it was ulcers, but it wasn’t until further test that they discovered it was an enlarged prostate but not cancerous.
• He went for surgery to remove his prostate which we were told should go smoothly and my dad would just need a temporary catheter while the wounds healed. However, complications with the surgery meant that he not only needed a catheter, but also had to get a stoma and subsequently two nephrostomy bags due to development of fistular – all of which he is still carrying to this day.
• We were then struck with the news that he has follicular lymphoma but because it was low grade and was developing slowly we were told there were no urgency to start treatment.
• However, not long after we were told the above, he became bed bound as his leg and groin area started swelling and that's when the doctors discovered his lymphoma has transformed. He started chemo treatment straight away. After two rounds of chemo, we were he was mostly cancer free.
• It wasn’t until a PET scan after all 6 rounds of chemo that we discovered his lymphoma has returned, at which point we were told my dad’s condition was dire. We tried another type of chemo but my dad’s lymphoma was unresponsive.

This is when our doctor told us about Glofitamab, a drug that might potentially save my father's life or at least give him more precious time on this earth with us. We were lucky enough to meet good doctors and nurses who have tried very hard to help my dad and had advocated strongly to Roche for Glofitamab for my dad (we would be forever grateful for their hard work regardless of outcome).

Initial discussions between our doctors and Roche lead us to believe there are good chances that Roche would eventually approve Gofitamab if we pay and try this other drug from Roche. As expected, that drug did not work and my dad's cancer progressed even further during the few weeks of treatment. This was all ok we thought as our ultimate hope was Glofitamab.

Roche however has rejected our application to access Glofitamab which absolutely devastated our family. No clear reasons were given. 

Every time we thought things were turning around we were then met with further bad news. My dad has fought so hard against his illness and suffered so much physically and mentally for the past year. It was not easy for him to go from a person looking after his family to become a person who needs my mum to empty his urine and stoma bag for him. Even after all this he is still smiling and encouraging us to have hope. After weeks of waiting, we were really hopeful that our application would be approved and have started planning out that if my dad start treatment early next week then he would be back home by next Friday to celebrate his birthday. Little did we know that this could be the last birthday we are celebrating with him and we don’t even know whether we would have even a final Christmas with him. He is very weak now and issues with the catheter/stoma/nephrostomy bags means that we can't even go to a park together, let alone fulfilling his wish of a family holiday.

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