Increasing Use of Compassionate Use/Managed Access Channels to Obtain Medicines for Use in COVID-19

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has triggered an extensive need for new therapeutics and there has been widespread use of unapproved/repurposed medicines. Several countries have regulations for access to unapproved medicines, known as compassionate use, managed/expanded access or emergency use. The Novartis Managed Access activity for COVID-19 delivered unapproved/repurposed medicines to nearly 6,000 patients over a 6-month period. With the rapid growth of such access mechanisms to address COVID-19, a better understanding of these channels is required.