The cancer drug Avastin, introduced in 2004, has largely lived up to its billing as an innovative way to attack cancer, along the way generating the most revenue for any cancer drug while being Roche Holding AG’s best-selling product with 6.46 billion Swiss francs ($6.88 billion) in sales last year.
Only now are Avastin’s limitations becoming clear to doctors. Even before U.S. regulators in December moved to revoke the drug’s conditional approval for treating breast cancer, Kent Osborne, a Texas oncologist, said in an interview that he was reducing use of the drug, citing its “huge” costs, disappointing benefits and frequent side effects.
“We’re talking about breast cancer that has spread and our job here, since we can’t cure patients yet, is to palliate them,” said Osborne, director of Baylor College of Medicine’s cancer center in Houston. “If you have a drug that makes their quality of life worse, you haven’t accomplished that goal.”
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Avastin - Roche's `Brilliant Concept' Fades Amid Doctor Disappointment - Bloomberg
via bloomberg.com
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