Genentech receives FDA approval for Perjeta to treat HER2-positive metastatic breast

[News]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Perjeta (pertuzumab), a new anti-HER2 therapy, to treat patients with HER2-positive late-stage (metastatic) breast cancer.

More... (http://www.news-medical.net/news/20120610/Genentech-receives-FDA-approval-for-Perjeta-to-treat-HER2-positive-metastatic-breast-cancer.aspx)

[gdpawel]

Perjeta is not a cure, added to standard treatment with Herceptin. Perjeta gives the average breast cancer patient only about six months more of calm before the disease starts to stir again. Given the limited benefit, the price is startling. A full course of the drug combination will cost $188,000.

Americans spent more than $23 billion last year for cancer drugs, more than we paid for prescriptions to treat anything else. But many oncologists are starting to question what we are getting in return for that bill, whether the war on cancer has become too much of a race to produce the next blockbuster.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/08/26/the-cancer-breakthroughs-that-cost-too-much-and-do-too-little.html