Drug Maker & Ophthalmologists See Eye to Eye
Med Headlines - A compromise announced Thursday between eye doctors and the biotechnology company Genentech promises to keep supplies steady of a drug used to treat macular degeneration. The drug in question is Avastin, which has US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approval for use as a cancer treatment. It is not approved for use in treating macular degeneration, one of the main causes of blindness in older people.
Genentech also makes Lucentis, a drug that is approved by the FDA for treating macular degeneration. Although approved for different uses, the two drugs work the same way.
Most doctors and patients prefer Avastin because of its dramatically lower cost than Lucentis. One injection of Lucentis, which may be needed every month, costs around $2,000. The cost of Avastin ranges from about $20 to $100.
In the past, Genentech sold Avastin to compounding pharmacies in dosages intended to treat cancer. The pharmacies would then divide the cancer dosage into many tiny dosages that would be used in the eye instead.
Genentech announced in October that it would no longer supply Avastin to the compounding pharmacies. They claimed the practice provoked undue attention from the FDA because the drug was being used for unapproved purposes.
Doctors claimed the change was a way to force them to use the more expensive drug instead.
The terms of Thursday’s compromise change the route of distribution. The drug manufacturer will now fill orders directly from the doctors themselves instead of from the compounding pharmacies. Deliveries of the drug, however, will still be made directly to the pharmacies.
Genentech, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and the American Society of Retina Specialists jointly announced the compromise.
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not likely. bio-identicals are proving to be no better than the regular HRT, as you may have read in the news lately. if our insurance companies were to start covering these exorbitantly high costs, our insurance costs would go even higher. I suggest you become better informed and stop listening to Suzanne. we aren’t going to be young forever
It’s very unethical I think, for a drug manufacturer to produce almost 2 identical drugs, limit the supply of 1 and sell the other fo 10 times the amount. I’m glad that has been resolved.