Dendreon Approval Sparks New Era for Cancer Vaccines (Update1)

[FarCenter]

By Catherine Larkin

April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Dendreon Corp. won approval for its only product, the prostate cancer vaccine Provenge, concluding a three-year battle with U.S. regulators to introduce the first therapy to train the body’s immune system to destroy tumors.

Provenge may reap annual sales of $4.3 billion by 2020, said George Farmer, a Canaccord Adams Inc. analyst in New York. Its clearance will also benefit more than a dozen other companies developing drugs in the emerging field of cancer immunotherapy, said Joseph Pantginis, an analyst with Roth Capital Partners in New York.

“This approval represents the first cancer immunotherapy product approved in the U.S. and is truly a landmark event,” Pantginis said in a research report yesterday.

Provenge, cleared yesterday for use against advanced prostate tumors, will initially be available at about 50 sites used for clinical trials, and more widely distributed after four plants are cleared for use by mid-2011, Seattle-based Dendreon said in a statement. It will cost $93,000 for a typical three- dose course of treatment, the company said.

<SNIP>http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=aE1vCqGwGVFo

[Kber]

1. From same article

"Provenge helped men whose prostate cancer had spread to other organs live four months longer in the 512-patient study released by the company in April 2009. The company had initially applied for approval based on an earlier study of 127 men that showed the drug improved survival and a second study of 98 men that failed to show a statistically significant benefit."

That's $23,250 per extra month of life.

However, I think that the approach has promise in the long run and I have read elsewhere that the treatment is more effective if it is applied earlier.

I don't know how much traditional cancer treatment ususally costs, but I'll bet it's similar, or even more.

On edit - actuall traditional costs are in the area of $45K over 5 years, so, yeah, this is a lot more expensive.