WHERE ARE THE WONDER DRUGS OF BIOTECH?
you an example, the drug Amevive, recently approved by the FDA to treat psoriasis, is a genetically engineered protein that inhibits the immune system. The treatment consists in an injection once a week for 12 weeks.
Now, since it inhibits the system that protects you against infections, patients could be left prone to infection. Thus, besides, having to have their immune system checked weekly, they will have to wait at least 12 weeks, after each course of treatment, before starting another.
Besides the augmented infection risk, it is important to know that, the immune cells affected by Amevive are the T-cells, those that are depleted in AIDS. Also, by affecting T-cells there is a possible risk of cancer. Only long-term usage can tell.
The price? From $7,000 to 10,000 for each course. To this you have to add the price of the blood tests. The knowledge coming from clinical trials indicates that it produces about 75% improvement in 15% to 40% of the patients depending on how and for how long it is administered.
The advantage is that when it works, its effects last longer and it does not cause liver damage that other drug, methotrexate, used to treat psoriasis does. This drug by the way is not injected and costs about $1,500 a year.
Now, psoriasis is a skin disease that affects about 1.5 million Americans. The disease goes from mild to severe. For patients affected with severe psoriasis, life can be very difficult, since it is very painful and sometimes can make their skin bleed. Those patients have a very poor quality of life, since it is practically controlled by the disease. Thus, they are happy to make the trade off, and pay the high price despite the risk of infections and possibly cancer for a few months free of the disease every few months.
To finish, insurance companies are starting to change their policies about drug cost coverage. If the drug you want is expensive, and it has no clear-cut advantages over lest costly alternatives, you will pay the difference. In hypertension, psoriasis and other diseases, this will represent thousands of dollars over a lifetime.
Thus, I wonder if all of the investment in Biotech is worth and ethical, if you end up with drugs with such weaknesses as the ones describes I this article.
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