Posted by Michael Wonder on 27 Aug 2017
Breast cancer drug Perjeta at risk in price wrangle
27 August 2017 - Thousands of women with advanced breast cancer could be denied a drug therapy that can extend life by almost 16 months.
Doctors and charities fear that a possible breakdown in talks between NHS England and Roche, the drug’s maker, would stop it becoming routinely available to patients.
Doctors hailed Perjeta as a big leap forward against a disease that affects 54,000 women a year in the UK. When it is combined with chemotherapy and the drug Herceptin, overall survival in patients with breast cancer that has spread is more than 4½ years, almost 16 months longer than with Herceptin and chemotherapy alone.
