braktovii/ Mektovi combination

[strawberryjam]

hello everyone

My son will start these BRAF inhibitors this week. Any tips about these meds would be welcome. He used Tafinlar/

mekanist for a year in 2018 and felt much worse than he did during treatment with Optivo so I

am sure hoping he can tolerate it.

Another subject: does anyone have the pten mutation? It’snot that common and I haven’t

seen any mention of it here.

Sending good wishes to everyone.

[Crycleo]

My son had NRAS which is Wild Type. It looks like yours has the BRAF mutation so I can’t help you there. There are so many new therapies available for both types. Everyone reacts differently. Just because one medicine affected him adversely, doesn’t mean they all will. I hope this one works out for him and is tolerated well.

[kellyOd]

Is the reason why he is switching because he’s not tolerating the last combo well? Both of those combos are BRAF inhibitors. Usually target the same cells. Hope to hear an update on his overall well-being!

[SGHSweethearts]

My husband did the Taf/Mek along with the Opdivo for 6months before continuing on the Opdivo alone for another year. He fortunately after the 1st 3 months did very well in this. I’ve heard of the braktovi/Mektovi , but don’t have any real knowledge about them. I pray your son does well on this combo.

Michele

[strawberryjam in reply to SGHSweethearts]

Thanks Michelle. I have just recently started to hear about the triple combo of Taf, /Mek and Optivo given together. Was this part of a clinical trial? I'm really glad your husband did well on the combo. I'm going to look into it to see if it's an option for my son. He took taf /mek and later on took Optivo alone. He didn't have any real side effects from the optivo It just didn't work to stop a recurrence. He had a terrible side effect with impaired vision that lasted an hour after the first dose of these new meds but we are told this might fade after a few days and we changed the dosing schedule . Hoping for the best. He can go back to Taf/Mek if these side effects are too much. The drugs are similar.

Thanks so much for your words of encouragement.

.

[strawberryjam]

So the Bratovi / Mektovi pills co pay was $400. The optivo copay was $0. Did anyone have this experience? Does anyone know why ?

[missyrand Ambassador in reply to strawberryjam]

We had the same copay for this medication combination. Probably because it is new, and there are other established BRAF/Mek combo's out there, so it is at the highest tier of drugs: hence the high copay. And we had outstanding insurance coverage every step of the way. It may not even be covered if there is medicare/medicaid used at this point, but not sure. I know the other targeted combos are covered by Medicare and Medicaid.

Wayne still had nausea on these drugs that we had to keep experimenting with to manage, but unclear to me how much was them and how much was mets growing in the liver.

Missy

[kellyOd]

I am not sure with that combo of medicine... also Ryan has Medicare and Medicaid through the government and state. But the Taf/Mek combo was almost $45,000 if no insurance was used.. so for the cost of similar drugs that co pay sounds about right. Depending on insurance... but immunotherapy is less than $10,000 depending on what kind

[strawberryjam]

Wow! All of a sudden $400 a month

sounds like a bargain! Well, if it works for people it is priceless.

[VivaciousMo]

hello! How is your son doing with the Braf/Mek combo so far? I have been on them almost 18 months and still NED. Hallelujah! I hope they produce wonderful results for your son. I have had virtually no side effects (that I have noticed at least) and I pray that will be the case for him as well. I hear that fevers may be common and that you should keep a close watch on your skin in case other types of (less dangerous) skin cancers develop. I am sending good thoughts!

Honestly the worst part has been working with the specialty pharmacy to get the prescriptions filled. Ha. Very long wait times on the phone, no automatic refills, etc. Also, thankfully my insurance has covered the Braf/Mek fully but in between jobs I lost my insurance for a few weeks during which time I needed a refill. They were going to try to charge me THOUSANDS of dollars. So unfair for something I need to live!