Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
This is what everyone fails to talk about when considering health care reform:
Introducing the $30,000 Per Month Cancer Drug
StethoscopeIs there a ceiling on the price of cancer drugs?
A medicine called Folotyn, approved earlier this year for patients with a rare form of lymphoma, costs $30,000 per month, the New York Times reports.
The drug hasn’t been proven to extend patients’ lives; in a study cited by the FDA, tumors shrank in 27% of patients who took the drug.
The price of cancer drugs has been rising, and many now cost thousands of dollars per month. Erbitux for colon cancer, co-marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly, costs $10,000 a month, to give one example cited by the NYT.
Allos, the company that sells Folotyn, tells the Times it made a significant investment to develop the first drug for peripheral T-cell lymphoma. The company says the price isn’t out of line with other drugs for rare cancers, and patients are likely to use the drug for only a few months, because the cancer it treats is so aggressive.
The new wave of expensive cancer drugs for very sick patients, combined with pressure to slow the rising cost of health care, makes this a thorny issue. Here’s further reading on how docs are learning to talk about drug prices with cancer patients, and on the regulations that limit Medicare’s ability to control the use and cost of cancer drugs.
I don’t think these will be flying off the shelf anytime soon unless we get a leash on the drug companies.
Introducing the $30,000 Per Month Cancer Drug
StethoscopeIs there a ceiling on the price of cancer drugs?
A medicine called Folotyn, approved earlier this year for patients with a rare form of lymphoma, costs $30,000 per month, the New York Times reports.
The drug hasn’t been proven to extend patients’ lives; in a study cited by the FDA, tumors shrank in 27% of patients who took the drug.
The price of cancer drugs has been rising, and many now cost thousands of dollars per month. Erbitux for colon cancer, co-marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly, costs $10,000 a month, to give one example cited by the NYT.
Allos, the company that sells Folotyn, tells the Times it made a significant investment to develop the first drug for peripheral T-cell lymphoma. The company says the price isn’t out of line with other drugs for rare cancers, and patients are likely to use the drug for only a few months, because the cancer it treats is so aggressive.
The new wave of expensive cancer drugs for very sick patients, combined with pressure to slow the rising cost of health care, makes this a thorny issue. Here’s further reading on how docs are learning to talk about drug prices with cancer patients, and on the regulations that limit Medicare’s ability to control the use and cost of cancer drugs.
I don’t think these will be flying off the shelf anytime soon unless we get a leash on the drug companies.
