Cancer

[mr40]

Lomustine Cancer Drug's Price Up 1400%

Lomustine, a long-standing cancer drug, saw a price increase of 1400 percent in four years, making it unaffordable to some patients, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The drug, which has no generic, was introduced in 1976 to treat brain tumors and Hodgkin lymphoma and originally sold for around $50 a capsule for the highest dose by CeeNU by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

In 2013 the product was taken over by a Miami startup, NextSource, which supplies the drug for lomustine manufacturer CordenPharma.

Further analyses by The Wall Street Journal showed that NextSource had increased the drug's price by 20 percent in August and by a further 12 percent in November.

Robert DiCrisci, chief executive of NextSource, said per The Wall Street Journal that the company developed its pricing based on several factors such as product-development costs and regulatory agency fees.

Meanwhile the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is embarking upon a campaign to promote a more competitive field for established drugs such as lomustine, which have no current generic copies.

A list released by the agency shows that at least 319 drugs feature expired U.S. patents but have no rivals and, in light of this, applications to market generic copies of these products are being encouraged.

Earlier this year Reuters reported that the rate that prices of injectable cancer drugs were increasing was far higher than inflation, with some drugs going up by 6 percent or more per year.

These statistics were revealed in a study led by Dr. Daniel Goldstein of Emory University in Atlanta, who told Reuters that he noticed "a gradual price creep in these patented drugs, and over the course of 10 years, that gradual creep becomes significant."

https://www.newsmax.com/thewire/lomustine-cancer-drug-price/2017/12/26/id/833747/