1. The development process was very
costly and complicated (targeted
biologicals) which "motivates" high cost of the medicine
2. The manufacturing process is also
not simple which again motivates high cost of the medicine
3. Drug therapeutic efficiency is
questionable and the use is driven very much by aggressive PR
But to be successful the drug has to show some efficacy! FDA earlier
rejected Avastin for treatment of breast cancer. And guess what? Now a clinical
trial showed that it is
inefficient in lung cancer in elderly patients!
“Patients in the Avastin group had a 39.6
percent probability of surviving one year, compared with 40.1 percent getting
chemotherapy from 2006-2007 and 35.6 percent for those treated earlier than
2006, the study found. More recent data might yield different results, the
researchers said.
Avastin,
a $5.8 billion-a-year product also known as bevacizumab, won U.S. Food and Drug
Administration approval for non-small cell lung cancer in 2006, after a study
found the therapy improved survival by a median of two months. That research
showed no benefit among patients aged 65 and older, who are covered by
Medicare, the government health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled.
At least two-thirds of patients with lung cancer qualify for Medicare, which
has covered Avastin for that use since FDA approval, the authors said.
“Clinicians
should exercise caution in making treatment recommendations and should use
bevacizumab judiciously for their older patients,” the researchers wrote. About
22 percent of patients diagnosed with the disease in 2007 were given Avastin as
part of their first-line chemotherapy, suggesting the product’s adoption “was
by no means universal,” they said”
Well, I am waiting for new trials, new data analysis – I think that inefficiency
of Avastin (and other MABs) will be clearly demonstrated under closer and more
unbiased analysis.
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