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Full-Text Articles in Law
The "Uberization" Of Healthcare: The Forthcoming Legal Storm Over Mobile Health Technology's Impact On The Medical Profession, Fazal Khan
Fazal Khan
The nascent field of mobile health technology is still very small but is predicted to grow exponentially as major technology companies such as Apple, Google, Samsung, and even Facebook have announced mobile health initiatives alongside influential healthcare provider networks. Given the highly regulated nature of healthcare, significant legal barriers stand in the way of mobile health’s potential ascension. I contend that the most difficult legal challenges facing this industry will be restrictive professional licensing and scope of practice laws. The primary reason is that mobile health threatens to disrupt historical power dynamics within the healthcare profession that have legally enshrined …
Genomics Unbound: The Bright Future Of Genetic Testing And Therapy In Light Of Prometheus, Fazal Khan, Lindsay Kessler
Genomics Unbound: The Bright Future Of Genetic Testing And Therapy In Light Of Prometheus, Fazal Khan, Lindsay Kessler
Fazal Khan
This article sets out why gene patents are detrimental to society and further explains why the Supreme Court’s decision in Prometheus unfetters the field of genomics from thirty years of bad precedent. Certain vested interests in the biotechnology industry have long argued that gene patents are needed to promote innovation and ultimately benefits the public interest. However, using Myriad’s breast cancer gene patents on BRCA1 and BRCA2 as a case study, this article argues the opposite. Essentially, gene patents stifle research, impede patient access to affordable testing, and set back the development of new therapies. In addition, this article analyzes …
Verify, Then Trust: How To Legalize Off-Label Drug Marketing, Fazal Khan, Justin Holloway
Verify, Then Trust: How To Legalize Off-Label Drug Marketing, Fazal Khan, Justin Holloway
Fazal Khan
This article proposes a novel framework for more broadly securing the benefits of “off-label” drug usage while mitigating the harms inherent to this practice. Once the FDA approves a drug, doctors can prescribe for it any indication they think is reasonable, even uses that have not been thoroughly tested. The FDA bans the marketing or promotion for off-label uses by drug companies precisely because such uses have not been validated to be safe or effective through the regulatory process. Further, there are serious concerns with validity of industry-sponsored off-label research related to practices such as ghostwriting, gag-clauses on researchers, and …
Preserving Human Potential As Freedom: A Framework For Regulating Epigenetic Harms, Fazal Khan
Preserving Human Potential As Freedom: A Framework For Regulating Epigenetic Harms, Fazal Khan
Fazal Khan
Epigenetics is a rapidly evolving scientific field of inquiry examining how a wide range of environmental, social, and nutritional exposures can dramatically control how genes are expressed without changing the underlying DNA. Research has demonstrated that epigenetics plays a large role in human development, and disease causation. In a sense, epigenetics blurs the distinction between “nature” and “nurture” as experiences (nurture) become a part of intrinsic biology (nature). Remarkably, some epigenetic modifications are durable across generations, meaning that exposures from our grandparents’ generation might affect our health now, even if we have not experienced the same exposures. In the same …
Paging King Solomon: Towards Allowing Organ Donation From Anencephalic Infants, Fazal Khan
Paging King Solomon: Towards Allowing Organ Donation From Anencephalic Infants, Fazal Khan
Fazal Khan
The article, Paging King Solomon: Towards Allowing Organ Donation from Anencephalic Infants, argues that organ donation from anencephalic infants is ethically and legally justifiable. Anencephaly is a medical condition characterized by a lack of brain development above the brainstem, so such children often lack a cerebrum, cerebellum and a skull. With an intact brainstem, these children can maintain heart and lung function. Without higher brain functioning though, these children are not capable of human consciousness and they typically have very short life spans measured in days or weeks. The way in which an anencephalic infant dies typically destroys the suitability …
The Human Factor: Globalizing Ethical Standards In Drug Trials Through Market Exclusion, Fazal R. Khan
The Human Factor: Globalizing Ethical Standards In Drug Trials Through Market Exclusion, Fazal R. Khan
Fazal Khan
This paper proposes a framework of international soft law and domestic drug regulations to a priori remove incentives for unethical clinical drug research in developing nations. The globalization of drug testing is very problematic from a bioethics perspective. While stringent regulations in the U.S. or E.U. may pose an adequate check on unethical research practices, many multinational corporations are engaging in regulatory arbitrage by outsourcing ethically questionable research to countries with less restrictive regulations. Given the tremendous financial reward a blockbuster therapy might generate, there is a strong incentive to move more research and development to countries with even looser …