Roche offers questionable money-back guarantee on Avastin

Submitted by Ross Bonander Thu 11/17/2011

Roche, the maker of the blockbuster anti-cancer drug Avastin, is responding to sluggish sales of the drug in Germany by offering a pharmaceutical industry first: A money-back guarantee.

Specifically, if a patient receives Avastin as a first-line therapy yet their tumors worsen within three to seven months, Roche claims they will pay a refund to insurers or hospitals, according to information obtained by Bloomberg News.

Worldwide, Roche has seen their sales on Avastin drop by 10 percent in the past quarter, a likely partial motivation for the decision to offer refunds. Roche stands to see Avastin take an even bigger hit if the US FDA makes a final ruling to remove the breast cancer indication from the drug.

However attractive this may seem to insurers or hospitals, it doesn't seem to offer cancer patients receiving the drug much if anything, thus raising the ire of bioethics experts.

Avastin is a humanized monoclonal antibody with US approval to treat several types of cancer. It is an anti-angiogenesis drug, meaning that it works by cutting off the ability of tumors to grow their own network of blood vessels.

Sources: Bloomberg News, Business Week

The information provided on CancerTreatment.net is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her health professional. This information is solely for informational purposes and does not constitute the practice of medicine. We encourage all visitors to see a licensed physician or nutritionist if they have any concerns regarding health issues related to diet, personal image and any other topics discussed on this site. Neither the owners or employees of CancerTreatment.net nor the author(s) of site content take responsibility for any possible consequences from any treatment, procedure, exercise, dietary modification, action or application of medication which results from reading this site. Always speak with your primary health care provider before engaging in any form of self treatment. Please see our Legal Statement for further information.