US CMS backs use of Dendreon's prostate cancer therapy Provenge

There was good news for USA-based Dendreon Corp (Nasdaq: DNDN) this week, when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a positive proposed decision memo for the company’s prostate cancer therapy Provenge (sipuleucel-T).

The CMS said that the evidence is adequate to conclude that the use of autologous cellular immunotherapy with Provenge, a full course treatment of which costs $93,000, improves health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries with asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic metastatic castrate resistant (hormone refractory) prostate cancer (CRPC) and thus is reasonable and necessary for that indication.

Medicare beneficiaries currently are able to access the therapy as Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) covering all 15 regional territories have established coverage guidelines and/or provided physicians with written or verbal guidance on coverage. However, if the CMS .had ruled against the immunotherapy drug, MACs would have had to stop reimbursing for the treatment.