Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche had already lowered the price of its breast cancer drug trastuzumab to state patients and it was now provided at a limited number of hospitals, it said on Monday. Roche is in talks with the health department for wider access to trastuzumab, which it sells as Herceptin in the private sector and Herclone in the state sector. Trastuzumab was for the first time included in the government’s essential medicines list in June and is recommended for eligible patients in its new breast cancer strategy, which was published on Friday. The health department is aiming to provide trastuzumab to 500 patients a year at 14 hospitals around the country. Roche spokeswoman Aadila Fakier said trastuzumab was not yet widely available to state patients but some healthcare facilities were buying the drug and doing so at a lower price than before. Roche sold trastuzumab to the state at about R10,500 a vial, she said, declining to specify the new price. Unlike tender prices,...
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