Harkonen says he still hopes that the FDA will add IPF to the drug's label.
The IPF also recommended that woodland cover should increase from 10% to 15% by 2060.
That might not be good enough for the FDA, which requires statistical rigor, but it might satisfy doctors who are treating IPF patients.
The Independent Panel on Forestry (IPF) was established in March 2011 after a ministerial U-turn on plans to dispose of a chunk of its woodlands.
The results of that measurement were not significant, but researchers noticed something that might be more encouraging: Patients taking Actimmune were less like to die from IPF.
Hilgartner, now 67, was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), one of the more lethal forms of severe fibrotic conditions that afflict more than 10 million Americans.
The Rt Rev James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool and who chaired the Panel, welcomed the government's response saying it was an "unequivocal endorsement" of the IPF's recommendations.
Right now, there is no approved treatment for IPF, and as few as 20% of patients respond to the steroids that are often used to treat the disease.
The 330-patient study InterMune just unveiled was designed to find out if IPF sufferers who took Actimmune saw their lung capacity decrease less than those who did not take the drug.
InterMune (nasdaq: ITMN - news - people ), the publicly held biotech boutique in Brisbane, Calif. that makes Actimmune, is conducting trials aimed at proving the drug's effectiveness in treating IPF.
Rosenberg, the Director of Policy Analysis for the IPF, wrote recently that "as a guy on trial for espionage, " Rosen had no right to point out that Charles Freeman, US President Barack Obama's initial choice to serve as Director of the National Intelligence Council, had a record of egregiously anti-Israel behavior and action.
应用推荐