Prostate cancer treatment Provenge to be covered by Medicare, as is Avastin

Prostate cancer treatment Provenge to be covered by Medicare, as is Avastin

www.latimes.com

Medicare said this week it will pay for two cancer treatments with hefty price tags -- and lingering questions: Avastin, the controversial drug shot down by an Food and Drug Administration panel on Wednesday for its use against advanced breast cancer, and Provenge, a treatment for advanced prostate cancer.

Even though an FDA panel said that Avastin wasn’t safe or beneficial enough in clinical trials, doctors can still prescribe it and Medicare will continue to cover it, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid told Reuters. The drug costs about $8,000 per month.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This article could also be called - "Are you Rich and diagnosed with cancer? Help may be here"

In the quoted text above is also a great indicator of the decline of our healthcare system into a for-profit business. A drug (Avastin) which is NOT approved by the FDA, can still be prescribed and WILL be covered by Medicare????

What kind of deal did big-pharma and the Fed strike to get that one through?



www.latimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Remember the 2006 Medicare Drug Bill the one with the doughnut hole..It also had a provision that would not let medicare negotiate prices with Pharma.

Actually Avastin is FDA approved, which doesn't mean anything these days (IMO).

I looked up Avastin and it seems to have been originally FDA approved back in 2004 and again in 2008 for breast cancer, yet FDA is now wanting to withdraw FDA approval for use in treating just breast cancer due to possible adverse side effects.

Avastin was first approved in 2004 for treatment of advanced colon cancer and has been approved since for advanced lung (2006), kidney and brain (glioblastoma) cancers (2009). Avastin was approved for metastatic breast cancer in 2008 under the accelerated approval program. Under the accelerated approval program, a drug may be approved based on results of clinical data that suggest the drug has an important clinical benefit. However, additional information is needed to confirm the data.

The FDA has proposed withdrawing Avastin's indication to treat women with metastatic breast cancer. The agency is making this announcement after deciding there is not enough evidence that the drug is safe and effective for this one indication. The announcement will not have any immediate effect on the approval of Avastin to treat metastatic breast cancer and there will be no change to product labeling. Since the marketing approval remains in effect, patients with breast cancer will still have access to the drug until a final decision has been made.

Sources:
www.fda.gov...
www.accessdata.fda.gov...

This still demonstrates how broken the FDA system truly is. This very powerful and expensive drug was apparently "fast tracked" into approval for breast cancer without any supporting studies or trials.

Another prime example of how pharmaceuticals are profiteering from cancer and pulling the strings at the FDA. I would like to know how many breast cancer victims were killed or injured by this drug before the FDA took noticed.