Replies to post #35001 on Biotech Values

[robgera]

Last evening at a retinal specialists association, my mother had a choice of Avastin or Lucentis for her wet AMD. We picked Lucentis because it's a smaller molecule which is the active portion of Avastin. We were informed that medicare completely covers Avastin off-label for that specific association. It sounds like Lucentis might have competition from the off-label Avastin for patients who can't afford Lucentis.

[DewDiligence]

DNA replies to Dow Jones’ query.
In the newswire update, instead of
saying that no one at Genentech was
available to comment on the NIH
announcement, it says the following:

>>
Genentech spokeswoman Dawn Kalmar said the company hasn't been formally approached with the [NIH] study proposal. She said the company is "concerned that a treatment is being used off-label," but it isn't planning on developing Avastin for eye treatment.

“We would rather look at funding studies that have the potential to meet other unmet medical needs, and looking where else Lucentis may be beneficial for patients, rather than redeveloping something that may or may not be better than what we already have,” Kalmar said.
<<

LOL

[DewDiligence]

More details on the NIH head-to-head AMD study:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/business/06drug.html

>>
The National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, said on its Web site yesterday that it would finance the study.

Maryann Redford, the administrator of the grant for this study, said the trial would cost about $16 million and involve 1,200 patients, who would be divided into four groups.

One group would get Lucentis injections every four weeks and another Avastin at that interval. Patients in the other two groups would get either Lucentis or Avastin on an as-needed basis in an effort to see whether vision could be adequately maintained with less frequent injections.

Dr. Redford said the patients would be followed for two years but that the study would take four years.

She said cost-saving was not the primary reason in her mind for the study. “Right now there is an uncontrolled experiment being done, in that many clinicians are using Avastin, but its safety and efficacy for this use hasn’t been tested,” she said. “If the fallout also is that it can be done much less expensively, great.”
<<