NWBT highlights cost effectiveness of DCVax in view of recent immunotherapy pricing concerns

Northwest Biotherapeutics (OTCBB: NWBO.ob) yesterday reminded markets, in response to recent investor concerns about Dendreon’s Provenge (sipuleucel-T), immune therapy, that NWBT’s DCVax immune therapies for a broad range of cancers (including prostate, brain, ovarian and others) hold the promise, based on available data to date, of being cost effective and priced below other immune therapies while still providing substantial profit margins for the company and longer survival for patients.

The investor concerns in the news relate to the pricing and reimbursement of Provenge for late stage, metastatic prostate cancer. Provenge is priced at $93,000 for one month of treatment and was approved by the Food and Drug Administration based upon having added 4.5 months of patient survival (to reach overall survival of 25.9 months). Just a few days ago, Dendreon scaled back its sales forecast for Provenge, as uptake has been slower than expected on physicians’ concerns about reimbursement (The Pharma Letter August 5).

DCVax treatment cost to be around $37K