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UK recommends against buying breast cancer drug

Wed Jun 9, 2010 7:01 PM EDT
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Associated Press
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LONDON — Britain's health watchdog on Thursday recommended against buying a breast cancer drug for patients with advanced disease.

In a statement, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence said that lapatinib, sold as Tyverb by GlaxoSmithKline PLC, is not cost-effective. The drug costs about 1,600 pounds ($2,300) per treatment course in Britain. Glaxo said the decision would mean about 2,000 patients in the U.K. will no longer get the drug.

Tyverb is given to women with advanced breast cancer in combination with another drug, after they have failed to improve with standard medicines like Herceptin. There are no other licensed treatments available to treat these women. The drug is widely available in countries including the U.S., Iceland, Czech Republic and elsewhere.

Glaxo called the decision "deeply disappointing."

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Lis

Glaxo called the decision "deeply disappointing."

Which is funny, because I find the 1,600 pound/2,300 dollar price tag "deeply dissappointing".

    Reply#1 - Thu Jun 10, 2010 2:53 PM EDT
    ledgeroo

    Why are these drugs so expensive. Is it because they need to charge all the money up front to recoup for all the research and development? what's in these things? And the thing is if you do the research, half the time these drugs don't work. Or the benefit is minimal. So instead of surviving 10.3 months "on average" you survive 13.1 month . How sad. People are ill and afraid and they have to worry about paying for these toxic meds on top of everything else.

      Reply#2 - Sat Jun 12, 2010 7:38 PM EDT
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