Judge rules FDA's reasoning for compassionate use exempt from FOIA requests

A federal judge ruled that information regarding FDA's decision to provide an investigational therapy to patients under compassionate use is exempt from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request as it could contain trade secret information.

The Goldwater Institute had submitted a FOIA request in 2014 seeking "any and all records that indicate the approval process, deliberations made during that process and final approval records regarding provision or approval" of Zmapp, an unapproved Ebola therapy from Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. (San Diego, Calif.) which was given to two patients through compassionate use. When FDA denied its request, the institute filed suit in 2015 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona to force FDA to provide the information...