Posted on 12/22/2010 6:12:55 PM PST by Kaslin
Medicine: The FDA has reversed its approval of a widely used cancer drug approved in Europe to treat breast cancer on the grounds it doesn't provide a "sufficient" benefit. Let the terminally ill and their doctors decide.
One of the blessings of blocking the omnibus spending bill was that it included $1 billion for the implementation of ObamaCare.
Yet the first effects are still being felt, the latest being the Food and Drug Administration's revoking of regulatory approval of Avastin to treat late-stage breast cancer.
The reason given by the FDA was that the drug does not provide "a sufficient benefit in slowing disease progression to outweigh the significant risk to patients." What risk? These women are dying.
The drug buys them precious time, and the only risk they face is from an FDA saying "pull the plug."
On the same day the FDA channeled Dr. Kevorkian, its European counterpart, the European Medicines Agency, issued a statement approving Avastin for metastatic breast cancer.
Benefits of the drug, it said, "continue to outweigh the risks, because the available data have overwhelmingly shown to prolong progression-free survival of breast cancer patients without a negative effect on the overall survival."
So what say you, FDA? An agency overseeing the cost-conscious, government-run health care systems in the European Union says Avastin does provide sufficient benefit at little risk to the patient.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
LOL. You got that right. MERRY CHRISTMAS!
1
With you on the cost, but we are talking the FDA here. What should cost have to do with the approval of a drug?
...................As for “where do you draw the line”, this is a practical political problem we face every day. “Lets pay for everything” is just not a realistic option, so there is no point in pretending that we don’t have to make such cost/benefit decisions, like it or not...................
Thank you!.
Just wanted to share this.
I was deathly ill a few weeks back. I mean, I am NEVER sick, so when I had abdominal pain that was beyond bearing, I actually went to see a doctor, LOL!
After an office visit and every nurse and doctor in the place MARVELING at my paper-thin medical history (Seriously, I NEVER get sick!) they poked around on me, did some blood work and were CONVINCED my appendix had burst.
So, they trundled me back into my car and MADE ME DRIVE - BY MYSELF - to another clinic that could take better care of me and do a CT scan. (Frankly, by this point, I was pretty hysterical, thinking I was going to die - because THEY they thought I was gonna and they needed to cover their butts! (My MIL and Mom met me at the next clinic for my CT Scan.)
Well, to make a boring story longer (LOL!), after a stint later in the week in the hospital on a Friday Night, there was NOTHING wrong with me that anyone could find. However, for my trouble, the doctor was MORE than happy to hook me up to a morphine drip. Good Lord! I told the Tech - absolutely NOT!
The pain subsided and I have had no problems since. I’ve been back to normal and right as rain for the past three weeks. *SHRUG* They ruled out EVERYTHING - no appendix problems, no gall bladder probblems, etc.
And, of course, NO ONE called later to even SEE if I was dead or alive!
Got the bill this week. $4,777.13
God Bless Us, Every One!
I have insurance; but I’ll still be on the hook for $500 or so FOR NOTHING BEING WRONG WITH ME!
So, many thanks to those of yout hat will be absorbing MY bill with your medical bills where you actually have something WRONG with you! Grrrrrrr!
We’re doomed...
“Just gimmie a pill and don’t bother me about my choices.”
Exactly!
With medical technologies, as with nearly all technologies, a formula that has worked well is that early adopters pay for the R&D costs. If someone wants to spend $1,000,000 for some new technology that is today rare and expensive, his money can be used to fund research and development; such people will in turn make it possible for others to use it much more inexpensively. Especially given that patents are for a finite duration, allowing rich people to fund new technologies almost guarantees that the technologies will be available to everyone within a few decades. By contrast, if rich people weren't allowed to be early adopters, nobody would be able to have the new technologies, ever, because they'd simply not be adopted.
Today, would the following be considered luxuries or necessities:
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