Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Tuesday April 04 2017, @11:54AM   Printer-friendly
from the high-cost-of-living? dept.

New cancer immunotherapies such as checkpoint inhibitors are showing success in treating cancer, but can cost well over $100,000 a year:

Newer cancer drugs that enlist the body's immune system are improving the odds of survival, but competition between them is not reining in prices that can now top $250,000 a year.

The drugs' success for patients is the result of big bets in cancer therapy made by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, Merck & Co Inc and Roche Holding AG, among others in big pharma. The industry's pipeline of cancer drugs expanded by 63 percent between 2005 and 2015, according to the QuintilesIMS Institute, and a good number are reaching the market.

The global market for cancer immunotherapies alone is expected to grow more than fourfold globally to $75.8 billion by 2022 from $16.9 billion in 2015, according to research firm GlobalData.

[...] "Competition is key to lowering drug prices," Trump told pharmaceutical executives at an Oval Office meeting in January.

But that is not happening with new drugs called checkpoint inhibitors that work by releasing a molecular brake, allowing the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells the same way it fights infections caused by bacteria or viruses.

For cancers like melanoma, the treatments can mean long-term survival for around 20 percent of patients.

Bristol's Yervoy, first approved in 2011, targets a protein known as CTLA-4. Other immunotherapies, including Bristol's Opdivo, Keytruda from Merck, Roche's Tecentriq, and Pfizer Inc's Bavencio, involve a different protein called PD-1.

Other targets are being explored. Some new data will be presented this week in Washington at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting.

Current checkpoint inhibitors each have a list price near $150,000 a year. A combination of Yervoy and Opdivo, approved by the Food and Drug Administration for advanced or inoperable melanoma, has a cost of $256,000 a year for patients who respond to the treatment.

Similar immunotherapies are in development at companies like AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L). Merck, which declined to comment on pricing plans, expects an FDA decision by May 10 on its combination of Keytruda and chemotherapy as an initial treatment for the most common form of lung cancer - by far the biggest market for cancer drugs.

Pfizer said Bavencio, cleared by the FDA earlier this month to treat Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare type of skin cancer, has a price "comparable to other checkpoint inhibitors approved for different indications."


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by jmorris on Tuesday April 04 2017, @06:45PM (1 child)

    by jmorris (4844) on Tuesday April 04 2017, @06:45PM (#488758)

    Assuming Christianity to be True for the purposes of debate only. And noting that I'm only an observer and NOT a priest/pastor so no warranty for what follows, please see a (hopefully not Marxist) real one for actual theological assistance. Or read the danged book for yourself, it is harder than the Constitution or Federalist Papers but not rocket science.

    Pretty sure Jesus is commanding the faithful in that passage to do works themselves. Person A voting to have the government seize resources from Person B and giving it to Person C because government idiot D decided C qualified for assistance isn't exactly what He had in mind. Especially if B isn't even a fellow Christian. So neither A, B, C or D gets into Heaven on that plan. If C is hungry and A or B feeds him and otherwise helps him get his life back then A or B has performed a worthy deed, and perhaps C will pass it on to E once he is able to support himself. Because that is the point, to actually HELP person C, not simply warehouse him in his squalor. And by the Witness of A it is hoped C comes to Jesus and then perhaps brings E along later. Remember, it is about saving souls when you are Christian.

    And what we actually do in our current degraded Democracy, where A, C, D and E outvote B to help themselves to their stuff is simply coveting turning into outright stealing and I don't think Jesus overturned the nice compact listicle God handed carved for Moses that has something important to say about not doing that. But even that isn't the worst sin in Progressivism: God doesn't think anyone is useless, Progressives do. Left unchecked it spirals out of control until just about everybody gets deemed ovenworthy because it is at heart unholy and Moloch needs constant sacrifices of blood.

    Remember that it is written that the Devil can quote Scripture when it serves His purposes... as you just did in a totally dishonest way. Think that listicle also has something important to say on that subject as well, you might want to reread the parts about bearing false witness and taking His name in vain because you are skirting really close, if not over the line, on those two. So by my count that makes four, wanna bet you can check off all ten for a perfect diabolic score?

    Theology discussion ends here.

    The problem is the government is barely competent to do those things we currently lack the social technology to do any other way. (Defense, Money, Law and Courts, perhaps Roads and some other infrastructure) It really sucks at most other things, charity being a very notable failure. It sucks huge amounts of resources out of the economy and makes the problem it claims to be solving worse while making the government stronger. So if you like more poor people, a bigger and more oppressive government and an overall darker, poorer world, then please continue because your plan is working. Otherwise the first step is admitting there is a problem.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday April 04 2017, @07:35PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Tuesday April 04 2017, @07:35PM (#488783)

    And by the Witness of A it is hoped C comes to Jesus and then perhaps brings E along later. Remember, it is about saving souls when you are Christian.

    The interesting thing about that, to me, is that none of those ideas come from Jesus directly. You won't find a lot of talk of saving souls in the gospels, but you will find a lot about helping people because they're people who need help. The whole "saving souls" concept comes from Paul.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.