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Novartis takes legal action in UK to make hospitals use $1,000 eye drug over $97 alternative
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Washington Post/Associated Press
Posted: May 1st, 2012
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/novartis-takes-le...
Drug maker Novartis is taking legal action in Britain to make state-run hospitals use an eye drug that costs about 700 pounds ($1,130) per shot instead of a cheaper one that costs 60 pounds ($97). In a statement, Novartis said it was calling for a judicial review as a last resort because it believed patient safety was being potentially compromised. According to the U.K.s health watchdog, Novartis Lucentis is the only drug recommended to treat the eye problem macular degeneration in the countrys state-run National Health Service hospitals. However, several NHS hospitals have been prescribing the much cheaper Avastin, a cancer drug made by Genentech Inc., a subsidiary of Roche, for the same problem even though it has not been officially approved. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine last year showed Avastin worked just as well as Lucentis for treating the eye disorder. Lucentis and Avastin act on the same biological protein in the body to spur blood vessel growth. In the U.S., eye doctors have often used tiny amounts of Avastin and billed the government for the cost, rather than buying Lucentis. Patient groups called for an independent analysis to determine which drug should be used.
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