The U.S. Congress is up in arms again against Big Pharma. This time, it's waging war over a patented drug for prostate cancer that costs almost $100,000 more than anywhere else in the world.
In a letter dated March 28 and addressed to Sylvia Mathews Burwell, secretary of Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Francis Collins, M.D., PhD, director of National Health Institutes (NIH), 12 members of the Congress including Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who's currently a presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, protest the market price of Xtandi (enzalutamide). Its patent is currently owned by California biotech firm Medivation in partnership with Astellas Pharma of Japan.
Xtandi is a prescription medicine for advanced types of prostate cancer. These are cancers that no longer respond to other treatments and medications, have progressed despite the surgery, or have already spread or metastasized. The drug works by reducing the body's production of testosterone, a male hormone.
While the drug is sold in other countries like Sweden, Japan and Canada for around $30,000 to $35,000, it has an enormous price tag of over $129,000 in the United States despite receiving government and army grants paid by taxpayers' money.
"We do not think that charging U.S. residents more than anywhere else in the world meets the obligation to make the invention available to U.S. residents on reasonable terms," said [PDF] the letter.
The undersigned encourages the NIH to "use its [marched-in] authority" as outlined in the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act that gives the agency the ability to license a patent and make the market open for generic competition if the drug was developed using federal funds.
The Congress also recommends a public hearing to be participated by different interest groups, which can serve as an avenue for the NIH to explain more clearly its position on drugs with excessive prices.
A report by Reuters cited Astellas saying that "81 percent of privately insured patients paid $25 or less out of pocket per month for the medication in 2015 and 79 percent of Medicare patients paid nothing out of pocket."
Medivation, HHS and NIH have yet to issue comments.
Prostate cancer remains one of the most common types of cancer and the second leading cause of death among American men. Although the five-year survival rate is generally good even for stage III and early stage 4 cancers, the percentage drops to 28 percent once it's already too advanced. The drug can help boost patients' longevity, but it may only be effective if it can be afforded.
