USA's Medicare review of Dendreon's prostate cancer vaccine Provenge renews medical cost-benefit debate, says Washington Post

The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which dictates what treatments the federal health-insurance program for the elderly will cover, is running a "national coverage analysis" of drugmaker Dendreon’s (Nasdaq: DNDN) Provenge (sipuleucel-T) for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer, the first vaccine approved for treating any cancer (The Pharma Letter April 30), according to a Washington Post report that has been placed on the web site of the US seniors group AARP.

The treatment costs $93,000 a patient and has been shown to extend patients' lives by about four months and the CMS revealed previously that it will decide whether national coverage is reasonable and necessary for America’s senior citizens (TPL July 2). A negative decision would have a serious impact on the uptake of the vaccine.

Although Medicare is not supposed to take cost into consideration when making such rulings, the decision to launch a formal examination has raised concerns among cancer experts, drug companies, lawmakers, prostate cancer patients and advocacy groups, the newspaper states.