Expensive colorectal cancer drug to go on sale

From the Globe and Mail:
A pharmaceutical company that refused to market one of the world's most expensive cancer drugs due to a cost dispute will sell its medicine to Canadians after all – at a price lower than it had wanted.

Marc Osborne, spokesman for Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada, confirmed that cetuximab will be marketed some time this year at a price agreed to by the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board.

But he said the decision to launch had largely to do with studies showing the drug can prolong the lives of metastatic colorectal cancer patients, in addition to patients with certain head and neck cancers.

“The price issue is behind us,” Mr. Osborne said in a telephone interview from Montreal. “We're going to work at making sure it's available to Canadians beyond the special access program.”

Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada took the unusual move about two years ago of deciding not to launch the drug because the price it wanted to charge was found to be too high by the federal board that regulates the cost of patented medicines to ensure they are not excessive. ...more

Ontario urged to cover cancer drug

From the Toronto Sun:
Alain Gourd lives on the other side of the Ottawa River in Quebec -- and for him it has been the difference between life and death.

Gourd, a former deputy minister of communications for the federal government, was diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer in March 2003. It had spread to his liver and lungs, and the resident of Gatineau was told he had six months to live.

"I had 14 metastasized cancer nodules on two lungs and I could not go for surgery. I was cooked. I started chemotherapy with Avastin and after two years of treatment the tumours diminished from 14 to three," he said yesterday.

Saskatchewan, Newfoundland, British Columbia and Quebec have made Avastin available through public funding. Ontario has not. ...more

High cost of living

From the Welland (Ont.) Tribune:
Kevin Bigford feels the province’s health system has let him down.

Its decision to not fund a drug that could extend his life caught the former Port Colborne resident completely by surprise when his oncologist laid out the cold facts about the cancer-fighting drug Avastin.

Because Avastin is still before the province’s committee to evaluate drugs, the Ministry of Health won’t fund it – even though four other provinces will.

“While they won’t come right out and say so, it’s about money,” Bigford said in a recent telephone interview from his home in Kitchener.

Avastin has a proven track record in extending the lives of patients with colorectal cancer, but the treatment comes with a crippling financial cost. One treatment of Avastin costs Bigford just under $3,000. He needs two treatments per month – about 20 in total.

In 2007, the Canadian Cancer Society estimated that 20,800 Canadians would be diagnosed with colorectal cancer and 8,700 people would die from the disease. One in 14 men is expected to develop colorectal cancer in their lifetime. It is currently the second leading cause of death. ...more

Tories push for cancer drug funds

From the Winnipeg Sun:
A cancer drug that can help patients live longer should be fully funded and not done on a “case-by-case basis” say the provincial Tories and a national cancer group.

“Why shouldn’t everybody have equal access to this drug?” said Barry Stein, president of the Colorectal Cancer Association of Canada.

“There needs to be quality of treatment for patients in Manitoba,” said Kelvin Goertzen, Tory health critic.

A spokeswoman for the province’s health minister Theresa Oswald said doctors can prescribe Avastin in Manitoba based on a patient’s need. The drug cost is covered in a limited number of cases. ...more

MDs uncover another weapon to wield in the cancer fight

From the Ottawa Citizen:
A Canadian-led international study of patients with advanced colorectal cancer has added "one more tool" for them: a drug that extends their lives by an average of six weeks, and which may also help to cure patients if it's used early in the disease.

So far, Cetuximab has only been tested in patients for whom all other treatments have failed. Their cancer has spread, and chemotherapy no longer helps.

The patients in the study lived an average of six months on the drug Cetuximab as opposed to an average of four and a half months without it. However, while it helped 31 per cent of them significantly, it didn't help the rest at all. A mutation in one gene appears to make the difference. ...more

Alberta covers costly cancer drug

From the Calgary Herald:
Alberta is now footing the bill for a common colon cancer treatment, leading advocates to call for provincial funding of a second drug with a steep price tag.

The provincial government has begun picking up the tab for Oxaliplatin after years of controversy because many patients paid thousands to undergo the therapy, an effective colon cancer treatment.

Alberta is expected to spend about $7 million a year to treat about 300 patients with the drug.

It's certainly a positive step for patients," said Dr. Tony Fields, a vice-president with the Alberta Cancer Board. ...more

Sanofi-aventis gets okay to market colorectal cancer drug

From the Globe and Mail:
A drug company has been given the green light by Health Canada to market the long-established colorectal cancer drug oxaliplatin.

Now that Sanofi-aventis Canada Inc. has received its notice of compliance, it alone holds the license to market the drug known by the trade name Eloxatin. The move means three other companies that sold versions of oxaliplatin at deep discount prices under Health Canada's special access program, will have to stop.

“Within the next 4 to 6 weeks we should be able to put [Eloxatin] in the market,” Joëlle Sissmann, vice-president of corporate affairs for Sanofi-aventis Canada Inc., said in a telephone interview from Montreal Monday.

“We got a call this morning that Sanofi had its notice of compliance and we were no longer allowed to sell our product,” Jennifer Wardrop, managing director of Sigmacon Lifesciences Inc., said in a telephone interview Monday. ...more

Petition urges Nova Scotia to fund Avastin

From CBC News:
Presented with a 2,200-signature petition Wednesday, Health Minister Chris d'Entremont said "public opinion" would be a factor in his final decision whether to cover a costly cancer drug.

The petition calls on the province to pay for Avastin, a drug used to treat colorectal cancer.

"I was very happy to be able to hand it to him personally and he seemed very open to receiving it," said Denyse Hockley, who launched the petition last month in support of a woman battling the disease. ...more