Angry at Genentech
I recently received this comment:
“Dr. Folk –
I'd like to highlight your point: "Most doctors use a dosing schedule of every four weeks for Lucentis and every six weeks for Avastin. Patients like this fifty percent increase in the time between injections."
My mother has wet ARMD in both eyes. While legally blind in one eye, the second eye was only subjected to one round of PDT damage before we switched to Avastin in Dec. 2005. She's experienced great results with Avastin.
However as with the PDT, she's one of the subset of patients that just doesn't stabilize with treatment. So for nearly 2 years, she's received injections in both eyes every 6 - 8 weeks.
The overwhelming economic argument aside, I think any policy-maker advocating a pharmacologically unwarranted change to 4 week treatment intervals vs 6 - 8 weeks should be expected to join the fun by having sham injections on the same schedule.
Then it might dawn on them that, though equivalent treatment outcomes may be realized, 50 - 100% more needle sticks HAS to increase the risk of adverse events. This is NOT like switching from once-a-day to twice-a-day dosing of an oral medication.”
This comment just reinforces the idea that I expressed earlier when I accused Genentech of practicing medicine. There are many people out there who are having great results with Avastin®. If Genentech succeeds at restricting the supply of Avastin, these people will probably have to be injected more often and this will increase the risk of side effects from the injections.
related posting: http://www.medrounds.org/amd/2007/10/genentech-pulls-plug-on-avastin.html
“Dr. Folk –
I'd like to highlight your point: "Most doctors use a dosing schedule of every four weeks for Lucentis and every six weeks for Avastin. Patients like this fifty percent increase in the time between injections."
My mother has wet ARMD in both eyes. While legally blind in one eye, the second eye was only subjected to one round of PDT damage before we switched to Avastin in Dec. 2005. She's experienced great results with Avastin.
However as with the PDT, she's one of the subset of patients that just doesn't stabilize with treatment. So for nearly 2 years, she's received injections in both eyes every 6 - 8 weeks.
The overwhelming economic argument aside, I think any policy-maker advocating a pharmacologically unwarranted change to 4 week treatment intervals vs 6 - 8 weeks should be expected to join the fun by having sham injections on the same schedule.
Then it might dawn on them that, though equivalent treatment outcomes may be realized, 50 - 100% more needle sticks HAS to increase the risk of adverse events. This is NOT like switching from once-a-day to twice-a-day dosing of an oral medication.”
This comment just reinforces the idea that I expressed earlier when I accused Genentech of practicing medicine. There are many people out there who are having great results with Avastin®. If Genentech succeeds at restricting the supply of Avastin, these people will probably have to be injected more often and this will increase the risk of side effects from the injections.
related posting: http://www.medrounds.org/amd/2007/10/genentech-pulls-plug-on-avastin.html
posted by FEP International at 12:49 PM
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