Medicare Will Pay For Pricey Prostate Cancer Drug

Medicare Will Pay For Pricey Prostate Cancer Drug

Medicare officials announced today that they will pay the $93,000 cost of the drug, Provenge, for patients with incurable late-stage prostate cancer. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid said the biotech drug is a “reasonable and necessary” medication which can extend a patient’s life by an average of 4 months, twice as long as patient undergoing chemotherapy (which has notable side effects). Provenge is an advanced medication whereby each dose is customized to work with an individual patient’s immune system. The Seattle-based Dendreon Corp., maker of the drug, says Provenge’s price point reflects the more than $1 billion spent on research and development of the drug. From a legal standpoint, Medicare is prohibited from considering price when deciding whether to pay for a new treatment or not. [via Yahoo! News]

Read more about Prostate Cancer and Provenge.

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