July 1st, 2011

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

A Food and Drug Administration panel’s decision this week to reject the drug Avastin for treatment for breast cancer could mean insurance companies would stop covering its costs for patients who depended on it.

CIGNA, for example, covers only FDA-approved medications, a company spokeswoman said.

“Avastin is currently an FDA-approved drug to treat breast cancer and as such is covered by CIGNA,” she said. “We will wait until the FDA reaches a decision before considering any coverage impact.”

Avastin is the world’s best-selling cancer drug, generating about $7 billion in sales for Roche Inc., which is based in Basel, Switzerland, but has operations in Nutley and Branchburg, N.J. Genentech, in San Francisco, is the subsidiary that makes Avastin. Breast cancer treatments accounted for about $1 billion of the sales.

Avastin is approved for colon, lung, kidney, and brain cancer. The FDA panel that met Tuesday and Wednesday dealt only with the drug’s safety and effectiveness in treating breast cancer. The six-member panel voted unanimously to withdraw approval of the drug for that purpose.

For the rest of the story, read The Philadelphia Inquirer