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The U.S. government is considering an unusual study that pits two Genentech Inc. drugs against the same disease, jeopardizing almost $1 billion in estimated annual sales for the world's second-largest biotechnology company.
The government's National Institutes of Health may test whether South San Francisco-based Genentech's Avastin for colon cancer can treat a common eye ailment in the elderly as well as the company's Lucentis, a new drug that costs $1,950 a dose.
The price is up to 100 times more than Avastin.
The two medicines block blood vessel growth that can nourish tumors and cause the blinding eye disease called age-related macular degeneration. If a study finds they are equally safe and effective for the eye disorder, analysts say insurers may press doctors to use the cheaper alternative.
"If Avastin were to be proven to be as good as Lucentis, then its use would probably be required — or at least the insurers would tier their payments in a way that would encourage Avastin to be used before Lucentis," says Eric Schmidt, an analyst at Cowen & Co. in New York.
Lucentis was approved June 30 for the wet, or more severe, form of age-related macular degeneration, the No. 1 cause of eyesight loss in older people. The NIH'S National Eye Institute says it's considering a proposal to compare the drugs made by Genentech.
"This is a quandary in medicine that we've never seen happen before where the other drug used to treat this outside of Lucentis is made by the same company," said Dr. Robert Johnson, an associate of West Coast Retina in Oakland.
Johnson, who was interviewed the day Lucentis was approved, said he has injected Avastin thousands of times totreat the condition and has seen great results.
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