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Avastin Sticker Shock

By: TobyToons (Diary)  |  October 11th, 2010 at 08:00 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA


FDA and Avastin

Avastin is a cancer drug developed by Roche Holding AG. It is also a costly drug. Avastin is used successfully for certain types of cancer (colorectal, lung, kidney, brain, and breast). It’s that last one that is raising eyebrows.

Obamacare created a new Independent Medicare Advisory Board (IMAB) to ‘curtail spending’. Now, on advice from the IMAB, the FDA is considering restricting Avastin. It is amazing to see the range of responses from the left here in America.

Try searching your favorite internet search engine for Avastin. The Avastin debate has been painted as everything from “right-wing-nut-job death panel talk” to “the drug doesn’t work for breast cancer” to “we already ration healthcare, so get over it.” I’m glad some on the left are admitting the truth. It’s a little scary that they still think it is the way we should handle our healthcare. This will be an interesting debate to watch once the November elections are over (maybe it is just a weird coincidence that the FDA kicked the can down the road until then).

Here are two of the articles that I found interesting:  one from Big Government, and one from FoxNews

cross-posted:  TobyToons, TMR

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COMMENTS

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  • penguin2

    who purport to speak for women. They must have such hatred for themselves that they can’t even bare to speak up for even this. I suspect that the NOW organization will be lining up to support “death with dignity” and euthanasia practices in order to put the poor women out of their misery….

    Wonder what candidate CA gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown’s position is on the rationing of Avastin. After all, he is against mammograms.

    October is Breast Cancer Awareness month; guess all that pink doesn’t have any meaning for the Socialists/Communists. In the end though, it will not be the power players and the ruling class that are denied this drug or any other drug due to rationing; remember Congress has made themselves exempt.

    The rich will always be able to obtain their health care – not so much the poor and middle class.

  • http://www.tobytoons.com TobyToons

    that we can use to describe Obamacare…

    “Healthcare for the Rich“. Either through rationing by the FDA, or insurance companies having to deny as many claims as the government already does, then the rich will be the ONLY ones that can afford to stay healthy.

    • http://www.gmsplace.com/ civil_truth

      They have a parallel private market for those able to afford such care.

      The only difference between them is whether the private component is above ground, or is a black market because it’s illegal.

      Particularly in the latter countries, people who can afford to will travel to other countries that still have private care available.

      Textbook example is Canada, where Newfoundland’s Premier came the the U.S. for heart surgery back in February.

      It’s a bitter irony that those who sincerely believe that gov’t health will benefit the poor will discover that it’s even more Obamacare for the rich. They’re blinded by their Manichean ideology with private industry as the Demiurge.

      • thurman

        In nearly every country other than the US, there exists the “state” health system, and a whole private cash-only parallel medical system

        Most docs have some obligation to work a certain amount of time for the state, then have side practices for cash for people who want to pay money for better, more prompt care.

        This is the case in many European countries that I know of

        Canada actually fights any privatization and innovation in their medical system, so they don’t yet have much of a private side system to my knowledge

        Fortunately for their wealthy and connected politicians, they border us so they can just hop the border to get adequate medical care in the US when they themselves get sick.

        Another example of this hypocrisy is one of their MP’s Barbara Stronach, who fought hard against any ounce of privatization in Canada’s medical system, immediately flew to the US on rich daddy’s dime when she herself got breast cancer.

        The most recent estimates show 400,000 or so foreign nationals coming to the US each year out of their own pockets for medical care, rather than in their own countries.

        You can’t make this garbage up:
        http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20070914/belinda_Stronach_070914/

    • http://www.gmsplace.com/ civil_truth

      Obamacare: Healthcare for the rich, Crumbs for the Poor.

  • MOlsen6

    I find it funny when politicians get a hold of an issue without really understanding what is actually going on …

    First, a little background. Avastin is a humanized monoclonal antibody, meaning the antibody was originally engineered in a mouse antibody format, and then the ligand binding loops (CDR

    • thurman

      Avastin is VERY effective actually.

      For glioblastomas, where we have very few options, Avastin alone works very well as a single agent in the second line setting– almost miraculous in some patients, in a cancer where we have no standard second line treatment. The prelim phase III trials using it first line with Temodar and radiation look excellent too, but it’s effectiveness as a second line single agent use is nothing short of amazing

      It’s added a very significant overall survival benefit (the gold standard of effectiveness) to standard chemo in stage IV colon and lung cancer– these were much-needed advances in survival, and translate into months and even years of prolonged survival for some patients with very minimal added toxicity

      The breast cancer data has been beaten to death, but very few real world doctors like me, who are the ones actually using this drug on patients, don’t think it doesn’t work.

  • stephaniet

    …if suddenly they were unable to get potentially life-saving medicine for themselves. That’s what I’d want to do to them: take them out of their Lexus cages, away from their mansions and expensive organic food, and say “HERE. Live like the rest of us.” It would be amusing to watch them struggle.

    I’m not saying I’d let them die if they got cancer and there was a drug that could save them (even though I’m sure the temptation would be strong). On the contrary, allowing them that medicine would very likely be the Biblical “heaping burning coals on their heads.”

    So they want to ration and control every area of our lives, huh? Maybe they’d like it if somebody did that to them, since they’re such big fans of governmental control.

  • uhangtight

    Avastin saved my life. That is all I need to know.. Brown and Mammograms and now this. Sure tells me the left has no respect for women and only does if it fits their agenda.