Bevacizumab (Avastin) is a medicine used in advanced colorectal cancer as an adjunct to chemotherapy. In this indication, it is used as an intravenous infusion. But this drug has proven to be effective in the treatment of Macular degeneration (AMD) when injected intra-vitreously, a puncture made directly into the eye, into the eye socket behind the lens called the vitreous cavity.
After two years during which the experts evaluated the benefit-risk of the use of Avastin in this pathology and after the green light of theNational Medicines Safety Agency, a decree has just authorized the reimbursement of Avastin when it is prescribed to treat AMD.
This “decision will allow significant savings to be made, while respecting patient safety,” said Minister of Health Marisol Touraine in a press release. Substantial savings in fact, because the only drug that has hitherto been authorized for reimbursement (Lucentis) costs 800 euros per monthly injection (i.e. an expenditure item for health insurance in the amount of 428 million euros per month. an) while Avastin costs between 30 and 50 euros.
Note, however, that the Roche laboratory, which markets Avastin, has just filed an appeal before the Council of State against the ministerial order allowing reimbursement of the drug in the treatment of AMD. The laboratory claims that its drug is not suitable for this disease. The use of Avastin will therefore be conditioned by the judge’s decision, but the date of the summary hearing is not yet known.
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