SAN FRANCISCO - In the two weeks since Genentech's expensive new drug Avastin was found to help the sickest lung cancer patients live a few months longer than expected, investors have pumped nearly $17 billion into the company.
But what's good for the patients, the company and its investors is also heavily stressing the health care system, raising uncomfortable questions about the cost of end-of-life care.
The average annual premium for employer-sponsored family coverage will be $14,565 in 2006, more than double what it was in 2001, forecasts the National Coalition on Health Care, an alliance of business, labor, religious and civic groups.
The ranks of the uninsured are rising as well, and lawmakers seek cuts to bring Medicare spending under control.
Much of the blame is being laid on prescription drugs, which have spiraled from $12 billion annually in 1980 to $179 billion in 2003, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services said.
Pricey new cancer drugs such as Avastin that help patients stay alive a few months more as well as dozens of other biotechnology drugs are more expensive to produce than traditional drugs because they are made from living cells, a new and radical departure from decades of manufacturing and regulatory practices that relied on well-known chemicals.
Some of the most costly drugs, like Avastin, are called "targeted therapies," because they attack cancerous cells while leaving healthy ones alone.
Dozens of such biotechnology-created cancer drugs are in advanced stages of development and Avastin, priced at $4,400 a month to treat colon cancer, is not nearly the most expensive.
For the patients whose health insurance plans pay these astronomical costs, the drugs can seem heaven-sent.
Richard Lewis is 45, a father of four and a high school counselor in Colstrip, Mont.