Special Price: $30K A Month For A Cancer Drug
18 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // December 7th, 2009 // 12:57 pm
The price for Folotyn, which was was approved to treat relapsed or refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma, a rare blood cancer that hits about 5,600 people in the US each year, seems certain to cause controversy as health care reform legislation is debated. As The New York Times notes, the drug shrink tumors, but has not been shown to prolong lives.
Allos defends the price, saying it made a significant investment to develop the first approved drug for this type of cancer. “It’s a very aggressive disease, and patients right now have no options,” Jim Caruso, chief commercial officer for Allos Therapeutics, which expects to begin selling the drug next month, tells the paper. “We believe we are fairly priced and we’re benchmarked” against other drugs.
However, the paper points out that Folotyn will cost at least three times other drugs criticized as being too pricey for the benefits they offer to patients. The colon cancer drug Erbitux, for instance, costs $10,000 a month and the drug Avastin about $8,800 when used to treat lung cancer. The price for Folotyn “seems way higher than I heard of before,” Robert Erwin, president of the Marti Nelson Cancer Foundation, a patient advocacy group, tells the Times. “I can’t imagine there not being a backlash against the pricing.”
Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons Amagill
Lisa Van Syckel
Greed,.. anyone. This price is absolutely ludicrous, considering that it doesnt prolong life. Cancer patients have enough to worry about, now they have to be concerned that they might be ripped off financially!!
A Free Market Capitalist
Allos should be allowed to charge whatever they want and let the market dictate success or failure. Price controls only serve to hinder innovation.
Americans want innovative, life-saving drugs, but they do not want to reward the companies and shareholders who take the incredible risks to bring those drugs to market. And you wonder why innovation in this country continues to dwindle.
Allos conducted very expensive clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of Fotolyn. If the FDA did not believe that the drug worked, they would not have approved it.
Who are you to say that Allos’ investors do not have the right to enjoy the rewards for the risk they took? If people do not believe that Fotolyn is not worth the price, then do not buy it.
There was a time in this country when risk-taking and hard work were rewarded. When I was a child, not everyone “won” a trophy or made the baseball team. Nowadays our society has been programmed to redistribute wealth in some misguided attempt to make everyone equal. Well everyone is not equal. Some of us really are better than the rest.
Vote Republican and save this country.
SteveM
Re: A Free Market Capitalist
Right, Allos should be allowed to charge whatever they want. And the insurance companies should be allowed to exclude coverage for the therapy.
End of argument…
Lisa Van Syckel
Free Market,
Sure lets bankrupt Medicare and Medicaid, lets pay astronomical prices for a drug that does not prolong life, and, sure, lets believe that FDA is perfect and pure, the Gold Standard.
“If you dont like the price dont buy it” Thats too funny, especially when the American taxpayer doesnt get a choice…
Your Philosophy Stinks…., and yes, all men and “woman” were created equal.
TripTick
Another option would be for the government to exercise its ownership rights in every drug that is developed using support of public health service grants, which pralatrexate was, and simply give it away to people who want it. Since the “free market” (which doesn’t exist anyway) doesn’t develop drugs, why should it control the pricing?
Then again, the drug company could negotiate reasonable prices and PAPs to ensure that everyone who needs it can get the drug at a price they can handle. We’re talking about 5000 patients a year. Not a blockbuster, but certainly enough so that everyone can get what they need. Maybe it won’t make any instant millionaires, but then that’s not really why scientists put their brain power to use developing drugs anyway.
Lisa Van Syckel
HELLOOO, 30,000 for a drugthat doesnt prolong life,… What am I missing here..
Condor
A FMC writes:
“. . .Americans want innovative, life-saving drugs, but they do not want to reward the companies and shareholders who take the incredible risks to bring those drugs to market. And you wonder why innovation in this country continues to dwindle. . . .”
This canard has become so formulaic as to be laughable — but I’ll indulge it — and you — just the same, for a moment longer:
Please name three breakthrough drugs NOT discovered in the USA, in the last four years, that are now for sale in the USA. . . .
I’ll wait.
But you’ll not find a single one.
So, I submit Pharma is ALREADY amply motivated, and rewarded, for its drug-discovery efforts — and in my personal (but experienced) opinion, $360,000 per year, or over a third of a million a year — is too much, given that there is NO EVIDENCE that the drug in question prolongs life. I wouldn’t pay it, without longevity outcomes data — and I suspect most US health insurers won’t, either.
That is, the US reimbursement market is likely to self-correct this one.
Q.E.D.
Namaste
A Free Market Capitalist
RE: SteveM - “And the insurance companies should be allowed to exclude coverage for the therapy.”
You’ll get no argument from me on that one. And I bet that you will be the first to complain that insurance companies should not be allowed to charge people according to their risk status. Regulations are already killing insurance and pharma companies. With less regulation, pharma and insurance companies could afford to charge less for their valuable services.
RE: Van Syckel - “and yes, all men and “woman” were created equal.”
I don’t know about your definition of equal, but when was the last time that you saw a woman bench press more than 300 lbs? You go to any gym and you’ll find many men that can do that. You are not very likely to find a woman. When are the damn liberals going to admit that we are not all equal? Call me a a chauvinst if you want, but for the record, I did not say that men were better than women, only that men are stronger (on average), simply to show the error of your “equality statement.” I am sick and tired of having an incompetent, bloated government take my tax dollars and redistribute to those less fortunate, and by less fortunate. Why should I be penalized if for others that are born too lazy or stupid to succeed.
RE: TripTick - “Another option would be for the government to exercise its ownership rights in every drug that is developed using support of public health service grants, which pralatrexate was, and simply give it away to people who want it.”
Learn your history. The 1980 Bayh-Dole act was created to stimulate biotechnology investment. Under that law pharmaceutical companies (or anyone else for that matter) has the right to license patent exclusivity for research initially developed with government funds. The Bayh-Dole act has been incredibly successful and is one of the reasons for America’s, albeit dwindling, leadership in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Name for me one single drug ever developed and taken to market by a university or the NIH, or any government agency for that matter! You cannot do it because it has never happened. Pharmaceutical companies take a tremendous risk when they decide to do clinical development on a candidate. If this process were easy or low risk, more people would do it. A high profit margin for a limited time (limited patent life) provides an incentive someone to take that risk. The Bayh-Dole act has been the single biggest boon to US dominance in medicine and biotechnology. Why would you want to destroy that?
RE: Condor - “Please name three breakthrough drugs NOT discovered in the USA, in the last four years, that are now for sale in the USA…So, I submit Pharma is ALREADY amply motivated, and rewarded, for its drug-discovery efforts ”
I am not really sure what your point is here. Sounds like you and I agree. To reiterate my point, if you want to kill the innovative pharmaceutical industry here in America, keep passing more unneeded legislation and interferring with the process of free enterprise. Those of you who so ignorantly disparage free markets are also typically apologists for your own culture. Thanks to your “hope and change,” you might get your wish to be more knowledgable of other cultures. You should start teaching your children Chinese or whatever dialect of Indian is most popular in Hyderabad. Unless this country gets back to the principles that made it strong, such as small government, small deficits, and rewards for those that work hard, your children are going to need those language skills to get a good job.
Condor
Putting the truth back into your fact free scree, A FMC.
“Torn from today’s headlines“, as they say — quite literally.
Namaste
Condor
Quoting (from the SeekingAlpha link) now:
“. . .During the third quarter of 2009, the FDA approved 10 new pharmaceuticals and vaccines while the EMEA cleared six new therapies, compared to eight FDA approvals in the second quarter. After the increase of marketing authorization over the past two quarters, drug developers may receive around a dozen more regulatory approvals through the end of the first quarter of 2010. . . .”
Namaste
TripTick
“Why would you want to destroy that?”
I’m not destroying Bayh-Dole, I’m talking about the march-in provision of that very act. The government retains march in rights in every single drug developed using federal grants funds, including this one. Those rights were specifically created by the Bayh-Dole Act to make sure that the innovation paid for by taxpayers is actually benefiting the public. It’s a nice power that we retain in order to force pharma companies to control greed, which I think everyone would agree we all possess in some measure.
These rights under Bayh-Dole were created for a good reason. They help encourage compromise in cases like this one so that, as I pointed out, everyone can be well-served by the science we all paid for.
Eric Milgram
I have an example of a company that preached the values of free-markets and deregulation. This company was even voted “Most Innovative” by Fortune magazine six years in a row.
Hey Mr. (or Ms.) Free Market Capitalist, you seem to know a lot about these things. Do you know the name of the company to which I am referring? You likely do, but in case not, here’s a little something to get you started
ENR_N
I gave you the first vowel for free. Well, nothing livens up a blog like a flame war. You know you’re old when you remember the pre-internet days of dial-up to a local BBS (1st prize to whoever can tell me what BBS stands for-No Googling).
Over the years, I have come to realize that the best way to deal with a troll or assclown is to ignore them. A very disciplined person capable of showing restraint would heed that advice.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending upon you’re persuasion), I have never exercised restraint very well. Thanks to the discussion here about “free markets,” I have a whole series of posts coming soon. It’s on!
http://blog.pharmaconduct.org?src=PharmalotComment20091207-Fotolyn2
Lisa Van Syckel
Free Market,.. Bench pressing 300lbs, so you consider a man who does this, as superior? That would be pretty funny, if it wasnt so sad.
I have never been called a liberal before, since I have been a Fiscal Conservative Republican since the Reagan years.
Thirty thousand dollars for a drug that does not prolong life is insane. And sorry Charlie, the majority of cancer patients become medicare/ medicaid recipients, and we, the American Taxpayer will foot the bill.
And distribution of your tax payer dollars..
Ill trade my tax return with yours, then you will really have something to complain about. I dont want a greedy Pharma to decide how my tax dollars are spent, especially for a drug that doesnt prolong life, which im sure also carries a significant list of side effects.
harry
pharma preying like vulchers on dying people, exploiting their fear of death, trying to get every penny out of them before they die. this is a disgrace.
harpy
yeah, really! and when was the last time you saw a man have a baby!
harpy
when did you start moderating, Ed?
harpy
http://www.powerliftingwatch.com/records/300-pound-raw-bench-press
nalky
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Don’t make me laugh! Allos’ pivotal trial was really small (109 evaluable patients), and they got Orphan status which means we (the US taxpayer) pay for half their costs anyway. Allos have PTCL patients over a barrel now, as they boast, but this won’t last. Already Istodax from Gloucester is in the wings. Interesting that Celgene just bought Istodax in preference to Folotyn!!! Anyway, belinostat comes on line in PTCL within 18 months, so Allos need to have a sky-high price in order to make their money before Folotyn becomes redundant.