MEDICINE COSTS
How the state's deal with Roche for cancer drug will help
The Department of Health has reached an agreement with Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche on the price of its breast-cancer drug trastuzumab, better known by its brand name of Herceptin, and has begun providing the drug to state patients, a senior official said on Tuesday. The development has implications for patients in both the public and private sector, as it will put pressure on medical schemes that do not currently pay for trastuzumab to show why they cannot afford it. The government’s new cancer policy, published last year, recommends trastuzumab for state patients for the first time. It is used in patients with HER2 tumours. Roche is the sole provider of trastuzumab in SA, which it sells as both an originator and a clone product, branded Herceptin and Herclon respectively. The lack of competition means the health department is paying more than it would like for the drug, putting pressure on already stretched provincial health budgets, said Yogan Pillay, the Health Departments’ ...
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