The U.K. government has announced a new scheme that aims to give patients with life-threatening or seriously debilitating conditions access to medicines that do not yet have a marketing authorization.

Ian Hudson, chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said, "We are delighted that the Early Access to Medicines Scheme will be launched in April 2014. This is a major new development in medicines policy in the U.K. The scheme offers a way by which unlicensed medicines can be available to patients before approval of a license to benefit public health. It also will enable companies to gain additional knowledge and experience of these medicines in clinical use."