Patients balk at Avastin's $100,000 price tag

As Genentech moves toward gaining official approval to use Avastin as a treatment for late-stage breast and lung cancer, patients and doctors are already being forced to confront a tab of $100,000 a year for the therapy. Higher doses are needed for both indications, pushing the price of treatment to $8,800 a month, one of the highest drug costs on the market. Providers are asking patients who take the drug as an off-label therapy for waivers that make the patients responsible for the cost if insurers reject their claims, and many are refusing to sign off. The New York Times also says that sales of Avastin are expected to rise to $7 billion a year in 2009 as Genentech pushes the argument that the inherent value of the drug--which often extends the lives of patients by several months--is worth the price.

- read this article [1] from The New York Times