Treatment for CLL: Change Aplenty, More Coming

[AussieNeil]

It won't be news to regular readers, but here's a summary of the treatment changes recently approved and on the way from Medscape News:

medscape.com/viewarticle/82...

The article has great delight in revealing that an up-to-the-minute guideline review for the treatment of CLL, published online July 21 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by a team of experts from Ohio State University in Columbus, was out of date two days later!

Neil

Photo: Some crystal balls for those trying to work out what treatment they will eventually receive; water droplets from a heavy fog on grass blades.

[Kwenda]

I like the prospect of the new drug selection.

But what worries me is the COSTS..!

In the UK will NICE agree to pay for them?

One can only hope that competative pressures between these new drugs might lower the prices.

Dick

[Cllcanada Top Poster CURE Hero in reply to Kwenda]

These drugs are protected, at least in the U.S. under the Orphan Drug Act which gives them a protected market to some extent and other benefits to develop and bring drugs to market. There isn't much competition. CLL is, I believe, the only cancer listed under the Rare and Neglected Diseases.

fda.gov/ForIndustry/Develop...

ncats.nih.gov/research/rare...

The patent is coming off Rituxan in 2018 in the U.S.. It will be interesting to see what downward pressure will be brought on costs as 'biosimilars' hit the market... it came off in 2013 in Europe.

Imbruvica (ibrutinib) will be starting the funding recommendation process in Canada later this fall and it will be interesting to see what the costs implication are. the funding request is...

'For the treatment of patients with CLL/SLL with or without deletion 17p who have received at least one prior therapy and are not considered appropriate for treatment or re-treatment with a purine analog'

Limited to second line, basically for patients that can't have fludarabine etc...