Who here thinks drug companies (pharmaceuticals) are altruistic...

[Buckeye_Democrat]

65. I don't understand the hostility.

I appreciate information.

I wrote that FDA approval can be costly and that I thought the companies were burdened with the cost.

None of that was my issue with Genentech. Even their FDA approval for Lucentis was fine by me.

The problem, which was ignored during his reply to me, was that Genentech tried to make off-label injection of Avastin into eyes illegal! They tried to get the government's help to stop an extremely effective treatment for macular degeneration that medical doctors had discovered! Genentech didn't discover that their anti-VEGF cancer drug could be used that way. Yet after they learned it could be used in that way, and they received FDA approval for Lucentis to be injected into eyes for AMD patients (making a minor chemical change from Avastin), they tried to CUT OFF the cheaper off-label use of Avastin!

Thankfully, they dropped that effort after patients and medical doctors raised a fit about it.

I appreciate his knowledge on the subject, but the upset reply just struck me as strange.

Edit:
And here's a link to a NYT story about their effort to restrict its use in eyes. (Ironically, I can't read it since I don't have a NYT subscription, but I'm obviously already familiar with what happened.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/business/11cnd-eye.html

My last injection was about 9 years ago because I got super lucky with scar tissue that blocked the cracks in Bruch's membrane, which had allowed blood vessel growth into my retina -- called neovascularization, or the "wet form" of macular degeneration.

Edit2:

I started experiencing neovascularization in my other eye in 2003 and I was blind in that eye within months.

The "good eye" started with neovascularization in 2005, but Avastin was available as an off-label treatment by then. I think it was the Palmer Institute in Florida who first discovered Avastin's effectiveness for MD shortly before that happened. Went through nearly monthly injections for about 6 years and kept my eyesight! 20/20 acuity with corrective lenses.

I ALMOST didn't bother returning to the eye doctor in 2005 because I thought, "There's nothing he can do anyway. F--k my life!"