Pfizer sells cancer drug that gives you 12 extra days to live, for $3,500 a month)

[Becky72]

Did any of you read that part, in today's New York Times?

And even some of those drugs offer only a few months at most of extra life or tumor stabilization despite prices that often reach thousands of dollars a month. The drug Tarceva, which costs about $3,500 a month, was approved as a treatment for pancreatic cancer because it improved survival by 12 days.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/health/research/02cancerdrug.html

[create.peace]

1. thought this was an Onion headline. nt

[SoCalDem]

22. me too.. who would BUY a month's supply?

:tofl:

[greyl]

2. Well, how much value do you put on a day of life with your loved ones? nt

[mikelgb]

4. Exactly what the bloodsucking pigs in the insurance companies are saying.

[greyl]

5. And what is your answer to how much value you place on a day of human life? nt

[Becky72]

17. I personally put the value of life at approximately $0.00 in those circumstances

In my opinion, those wouldn't be just any 12 days. Those would be 12 days in excruciating agony, seeing your family torn apart by looking at your 70 pound body, listen to you moan because of the discomfort, etc.

That's not even mentioning the fact that I could give those thousands of dollars to my family so they can pay rent, food, my burial, etc.

I would be more likely to pay money to be euthanized ahead of time than living 12 more crappy days.

[NashVegas]

11. Enough to Say What Needs to Be Said, And Let Them Go

Instead of clinging to happy thoughts and watching them spend the rest of their days, emotionally constipated.

[kimmylavin]

12. You call that life?

Twelve final extended days of pancreatic cancer?

Have you ever seen anyone die of pancreatic cancer?
The last days are when everyone is just praying for them to die quickly and peacefully.

[greyl]

16. The quality of life would be a factor, that's absolutely true.

I was applying my experience with a brain cancer death, having none with pancreatic cancer.

[kimmylavin]

21. Oh, its one of the worst ways to go.

And the pain, the pain...

That's why I think this "medicine" is particularly predatory.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the few almost totally lethal cancers.
There's nothing to stop it, especially near the end.
Extending that end on its own is cruel.
Extending it to the tune of $3500 is just horrific.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. I know it sounds like a crazy deal, but once my MIL was diagnosed

she only had a few weeks to live. Twelve more days of her not in a coma would have been a blessing. (That's assuming though, they could have managed the pain better. If not then I wouldn't have wanted to prolong her agony by a single second.)

Now if they could just get the price under control, that would be a really good thing.

[Cerridwen]

6. Generic version - 1/3 of price - available in India

Not sure if it's available in the US

Generic version leads to competition

Indian pharmaceutical firm Cipla has developed a generic version of erlotonib which is priced at a third the price of Tarceva. A tough competition emerged for Roche's Tarceva when Cipla won the case over Roche in April 2009, and was allowed to manufacture and sell the generic version in the Indian market. Tarceva was launched in India in 2006. from this link

[MercutioATC]

7. ...and THIS is a perfect example of what a "death panel" issue should be.

"Death panel" is provocative wording, but they exist in private insurance and they will continue to exist under any possible "universal" plan...administered by the government or not.


If somebody can afford to pay for this out of pocket, they should be permitted to...but there's no way we can afford to provide this extravagance to everybody.

[mikelgb]

8. right, only the rich deserve another day.

[MercutioATC]

10. Cold truth, but in examples like this, yes.

Nobody should be prevented from taking extreme, costly measures to eke out a few more days of life...but neither should (or can) others be expected to pay for it.

[shireen]

9. question: how much drug research is done in pharmaceutical companies vs. academic research ?

A lot of studies are done by the NIH and medical research labs at universities. Does anyone know how much research that leads to drug development gets done in these two different entities? How many drugs started out as government-sponsored research?

[seemunkee]

13. 12 days over what?

What are the costs of other treatments? Are they the same, cheaper, more expensive? And it says nothing about quality of life during that time.

[xultar]

15. over 14 days. That's 26 days and it means a fucking lot to the family.

[seemunkee]

20. Actually over one year

Twenty-four percent of patients treated with gemcitabine and erlotinib, compared with 17 percent of those treated with gemcitabine and a placebo, were alive after one year. However, the median difference in survival between the two groups was less than one month (6.4 months for the erlotinib group, compared with 5.9 months for the placebo group).
link to the study
http://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/results/erlotininb-and-pancreatic-cancer0505


Xultar I'm not arguing against it, I just thought the article was crap.

[xultar]

14. over 14. My ex's father just died of pancreatic cancer on saturday. He only found

out 12 days ago.

With those extra 12 days he would have been able to see his son one last time.

[FarCenter]

24. At that late stage, this drug would not have done a thing.

Its effect is to slow progression of the disease. A cancer that is so advanced or so agressive that it kills in 14 days is not the type that the small inhibition of cell division mechanisms would change very much.

[xultar]

25. What I'm trying to say that another 12 days if you can get it @ any stage is good.

[hedgehog]

18. The real question is whether this is a step to developing a cure

or treatment of pancreatic cancer or just an expensive dead end (If you'd excuse the term.) When I was a kid, childhood leukemia ended in a quick death. (The Bush family lost a daughter to leukemia in the 50's). Today the 5 year survival rate is 80%.

Senator William Proxmire used to get a lot of attention for his Golden Fleece Awards for federal money supposedly spent on foolish and whimsical projects. The problem is that scientific knowledge proceeds slowly, step by step. Sometimes something that seems foolish at first glance turns out to be an important piece of the puzzle.

[FarCenter]

23. This appears to inhibit an enzyme that produces a protein that is used in cell division

The protein is found in larger amounts in cancer cells, and it assists in their rapid cell division and tumor growth.

That approach seems to be a fairly standard one for a wide range of drugs.

I doubt that there is new basic science here. The work would be identifying the protein the cells are using in the division process, identifying the enzyme that produces it, and identifying a chemical that can block the enzyme's operation without killing the patient.

[Mari333]

19. these Big Pharmas would steal the gold from their grandmothers teeth

on her deathbed, if they could.