Could you explain more what you mean by this?

I guess there’s the fact it made it to Phase III before they canned it meaning more people were hopeful than if action were taken to stop progress sooner.

But, how can progress be made if failure is disallowed because of unknowingly giving people false hope?

It made it to phase III: fine, there was enough evidence in the dubious phase II to perhaps justify a further trial.

But selling it to patients as an ALS therapy in the meantime outside of that trial, when it looked very dubious that it did anything-- that was a little questionable. The FDA overruling their own advisory committee to make this possible looks like a regulatory failure.

I'm not saying to disallow it, but please at least understand that it still hurts.

People take all sorts of stuff they hope will help but probably doesn't. Vitamins, crystals, cups of tea etc. I can't see how they make things much worse.

I'm strongly in favor of experimental drug trials, most of which will fail. "False hope" is a small price to pay.

According to the article, the evidence for this drug was never substantial. We know it doesn't work now, onto the next.

I suppose we can try no new drugs and give nobody any false hope, presumably we'll be better off then?