Today, on World Cancer Day, there has been many great announcements and celebrations.
The FDA approved Pfizer’s new drug Ibrance (INN: palbociclib) for the treatment of metastatic (advanced) breast cancer to be used in combination with letrozole based on a 165 person trial at UCLA’s cancer center. (FDA press release here, ABC story here.)
For previously untreated postmenopausal women whose cancer cells have receptors to estrogen (and who do not have mutations in the HER2 gene) in other words the largest proportion of breast cancer cases typically treated with the chemotherapy tamoxifen (off patent and cheap chemo “in a pill”) or letrozole, this could very well be a game changer. More life, more time and hope. That is if they can afford it.
Pfizer says the price will be $9,850 a month, or $118,200 per year of treatment.
Analysts have estimated the drug will earn more than $4 billion per year in sales.
The research originated in 2007, when UCLA’s Dr. Dennis Finn and Dr. Richard Slamon met with Pfizer to discuss palbociclib and other experimental drugs in the company’s pipeline. UCLA which helped test the drug for Pfizer, said Ibrance produced “groundbreaking results” in studies conducted at the university and has potential to become a mainstay treatment.
So, today, on World Cancer Day Pfizer announced a donation of $500,000 to the Union for International Cancer Control
As one of my colleague pointed out, this is the equivalent of what it will cost 5 women to pay for one year of treatment with the new Pfizer product.
Time to celebrate?