Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Cancer drug spending growth nearly doubles-report

http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompanyNewsArticle.jhtml?duid=mtfh82777_2005-05-16_19-59-12_n16....

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CHICAGO, May 16 (Reuters) – Spending on treatments for cancer is rising much faster than for common pharmaceuticals, posing a significant challenge for employers and government healthcare payers, a report issued on Monday said.

Spending on cancer and related medications rose by 15.3 percent in 2004, nearly double the increase in 2003, according a report by Medco Health Solutions Inc., one of the three biggest pharmacy benefit managers in the United States.

Increased use of two new cancer therapies alone -- Novartis AG's Gleevec and AstraZeneca Plc's Iressa -- accounted for most of the jump, the report said. [The Iressa spending problem should have taken care of itself by now.]

New cases of cancer and efforts to find treatments are fueling the pace, the report said. [Duh]

The American Cancer Society expects about 1.2 million new cases of cancer this year. Medco's drug trend report found that more than 200 experimental compounds are under investigation to treat cancer. [Actually more than that – see #msg-2789976 for a partial list.]

Cancer therapies are typically biotechnology drugs made of complicated proteins that are often injected. This makes them several times more expensive than traditional pill-form pharmaceuticals.
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