New Cancer "living drug" Approved-$475,000-$750,000 per Treatment

There is a new drug for leukemia but this is a very high price tag- $450,000 to 750,000.

By its own reckoning, the UK’s tough watch dog on drug pricing has said that these drugs would be worth up to $649,000 a year, given the young patients it’s targeting first. Analysts, meanwhile, have pegged the price at anywhere from $400,000 to $750,000.

endpts.com...

New treatment for a specific type of childhood Leukemia, it uses the patients own blood cells, engineers them to kill the cancers. Very exciting times.

Novartis (NVS -1%) has assuaged investors in Gilead Sciences (GILD +5.2%) that CAR-T pricing may be an issue. It announced that its just-approved Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) will cost $475K per treatment, toward the low end of analysts' projected range of $400K - 750K.
Opening a new era in cancer care, the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the first treatment that genetically engineers patients' own blood cells into an army of assassins to seek and destroy childhood leukemia.

abcnews.go.com...
seekingalpha.com...

Heart warming sentiments to be sure. There is talk of outcome based payments though. In other works if it doesn't work you don't pay.

If CMS agrees and implements the scheme, then the price should be substantially higher than $475K considering the "life value" of young patients who respond.
It also said that it is working with CMS on an outcomes-based approach to reimbursement that will allow payment for only those ALL patients that respond to treatment by the end of one month.

If we think medical costs are high now, I imagine we have seen nothing yet.



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and your insurance companies won't cover a penny of it.

My grandmother passed away from Leukemia when I was just 1. I don't even remember her sadly. So any advancement on the treatment/curing of Leukemia in either adults or children is a beam of joy for me. The price tag not so much but its a step.

-Alee

a reply to: Ohanka

I can't imagine how this sort of drug is going to be paid for. Very few can secure a loan for that kind of money.

Imagine the guilt of the parent/s that can't get the treatment to save their child.

Ahhhh. I suppose if you are rich it might be an option. But I could never afford that price tag. If insurances start paying for that we will see the cost of the drug coverage jump up a real lot for everyone.

I would bet the cost could be a tenth of that price and they would still get rich...

a reply to: seasonal

Complete and utter failure of a healthcare system. Unless of course this is a capitalist venture, then it's a homerun for profits at the cost of those who are suffering.

But you can't call this "healthcare" in any sense of the word.

a reply to: AgarthaSeed

I wonder how the company that makes this (Novartis) available?

They must have the approval from insurance. If not no one will be able to use this. It takes an average US worker 20 +or- years to earn $1,000,000. And they make a life with that during those 20 years. This treatment could cost $750,000?


WOW, just wow.

This is hillarious to me. There's a plant called cannabis made into the form of oil that can cure cancer fast and more efficiently than any drug by big pharma out there. I have cured stomach cancer and a doctor not to long ago gave his wife the oil and her tumor was the size of a soft ball. Now it's the size of peanut. So decide to pay $600 thousand dollars or pay about 2500 for a cure. I don't expect anyone to believe me but there is a reason why they don't tell people the cure. It's too easy to obtain and grow. Thusly, ending big pharma in the cancer game.

So someone should learn the process and synthesize it. Cut them all out of the loop.
Problem solved.

I remember my dad was taking some pill form meds from the UK cost him 5k a month out of pocket for his cancer,that was in the early 80's

NSFW

Thanks God! I thought it would be a million...

The price is outrageous but my son passed away from leukemia and I would have sold everything and mortgaged my house to the max to save him. He took part in clinical trials when all else failed. One of the outcomes of trials is that it may help to develop a cure. I would like to think my son contributed to this. I truly hope it develops into a cure and becomes mainstream.

God love ya

a reply to: LogicalGraphitti

originally posted by: GBP/JPY
God love ya

a reply to: LogicalGraphitti

thank you! It hurts every day but I have a completely different outlook on life now. More in focus. We are all insignificant individuals but rock it when it comes to the collective.

originally posted by: Mandroid7
So someone should learn the process and synthesize it. Cut them all out of the loop.
Problem solved.

It's genetic modification of the immune system. Custom modification of the patients own T-helper cells so that they have a new set of CD-19 receptors that identify the cancer cells and alert the immune system. The immune system can't clone these by itself.