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Tue 28 Dec, 2010 12:04 am
to draw on = nearing the end of their lives?
Context:
A regulatory process that can take years to approve a drug for sale means that instead of thousands of patients to draw on, only the few hundred who receive the drug through clinical trials are available for such research. Ethical review boards frown on any procedure that exposes patients to unnecessary risk, like the rupturing of a blood vessel or puncturing of a lung. Some hard-won tumor samples prove unsuitable for research.
Then there is the question of who will pay for the biopsies, which cost as much as $5,000 and typically cannot be billed to insurance. Dr. Lo, for one, covered the costs when there was no other means to pay.
@oristarA,
select from in a population
To clarify that answer a little, "to draw on" means the number in the population from which to select . . .
There can be lots of money in your bank, but the money in your account is the only money you can draw on.
Thank you both.
But who "are available "? The whole sentence is still confusing for me.
Thousands of patients are (not) available, rather, only hundreds of patients are available.
To clarify, the sentence is saying that there are not thousands of patients to draw (available), but only hundreds of patients to draw on (available).
@Setanta,
In this context the phrase "to draw on" means "available for use"
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