$100,000 price tag for treatment with new cancer drug ......fucking obscene

[spanone]

WASHINGTON — The price of Seattle Genetics Inc's blood cancer drug Adcetris could top $100,000 for a course of treatment, becoming the latest cancer medicine to come at a high cost.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Friday gave its nod to Adcetris, the first drug specifically indicated for anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) and the first one approved for Hodgkin's lymphoma since 1977.

Seattle Genetics Monday said the drug will cost $4,500 per vial. In its clinical trials, the company said, patients on average received three vials per dose and between seven and nine doses per treatment.

The total price would then generally vary from $94,500 to $121,500 per patient, within Wall Street's expected range.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44231292/ns/health-cancer/#

[OhioChick]

1. Something only the filthy rich will be able to afford n/t

[givemebackmycountry]

2. Within Wall Street's expected range

May I be the first to say...

FUCK WALL STREET!

[Waiting For Everyman]

3. This is what's wrong with Medicare and the health system - the looting has to stop.

Price controls, if necessary. The theft level now is way past absurd.

[xocet]

4. Here is an interesting claim from one of their SEC filings:

We have a history of net losses. We expect to continue to incur net losses and may not achieve profitability for some time, if at all. *

We have incurred substantial net losses in each of our years of operation and, as of June 30, 2011, we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $546.2 million. We expect to make substantial expenditures to further develop and potentially commercialize our product candidates and we anticipate that our rate of spending will accelerate as the result of the increased costs and expenses associated with research, development, clinical trials, manufacturing, and potential regulatory approvals and commercialization of our product candidates. Until the approval and commercialization of one or more of our product candidates, we expect our revenues to be derived from technology licensing fees, sponsored research fees and milestone payments under existing and future collaborative arrangements. In the longer term, our revenues may also include royalties from collaborations with current and potential future strategic partners and commercial product sales if any of our product candidates are approved for commercial sale. However, our revenue and profit potential is unproven and our limited operating history makes our future operating results difficult to predict.

(http://investor.seagen.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=124860&p=irol-SECText&TEXT=aHR0cDovL2lyLmludC53ZXN0bGF3YnVzaW5lc3MuY29tL2RvY3VtZW50L3YxLzAwMDExOTMxMjUtMTEtMjEyMzY1L3htbC9zdWJkb2N1bWVudC8xL3BhZ2UvMjc%3d)

[holdencaufield]

5. How much did it cost to develop? NT

[saras]

6. Over 500 mil to develop it, strictly limited audience

You can't fix this without getting capitalism out of the picture and making medicine something we do to make society better, like roads.

From their final approval PR release, at http://www.adcetris.com/_pdf/FDA_Approval_FINAL_19Aug11.pdf, they say it's for two kinds of lymphoma, but only for patients for whom previous treatments have already failed.

"...two indications: (1) the treatment of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma after failure of autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) or after failure of at least two prior multi-agent chemotherapy regimens in patients who are not ASCT candidates, and (2) the treatment of patients with systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) after failure of at least one prior multi-agent chemotherapy regimen."

If the financial pressures on them dictate that they really do have to pay the total research cost, in a reasonable time frame for investments, out of the cost of selling the stuff, to that limited audience, then, yes, it's going to have to cost five grand per vial. And it is, unfortunately, a complex thing with antibody proteins, not just a simple chemical to be manufactured, so it's less likely to be counterfeited than some other stuff.

Basic info from Wikipedia https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Brentuximab_vedotin">here

[xocet]

7. Exactly. This development should be for the good of humankind and should be funded by the govt. n/t

[TBF]

8. Do they make it from diamonds or something? Why so expensive?

nt

[w8liftinglady]

9. When I had a blood clot in my lung,the treatment was 4500/week

it took weeks for them to get my blood levels therapeutic on oral meds...so I was giving myself twice a day injections of Lovenox 0.8mg.
Thanks to the combination of my insurance,family and the generosity of a couple of DUers, I didn't drop dead.If I had been uninsured, I would have died.

reality...and profit...are an immoral bitch.

[Duer 157099]

10. You know what I never hear being talked about when stories like this come out?

The extreme cost of doing research, which is what causes these drug prices to be so high in the first place.

In the days of the gold rush, the ones making the most consistent high profits were those who sold supplies to the miners (like Levi Straus).

Nowadays, the equivalent are the vendors who sell supplies to researchers. And most of it is just plastic ware, centrifuge tubes, tissue culture plasticware, things like that, but the cost is astronomical and I think way out of line. Why? Because people doing research don't really have time to comparison shop and they tend to use the things they have always used, no matter the cost, especially if they work in a pharmaceutical company where the budget isn't an issue.

It is almost on par with the stories you hear about governmental contractors who charge hundreds of dollars for toilet paper or whatever. Research suppliers somehow also get away with charging excessive prices for really mundane things, sometimes as trivial as pens and batteries, things you could get at Costco, but for convenience, researchers just order them from the same place they get their specialized stuff.

It's just really bizarre.

[Dreamer Tatum]

11. If the govt doesn't fund that research, then

drug companies that charge that muich should ALL have their financials reported just as though they are publicly traded.

That way gouging can be detected if it occurs.