(Reuters) - Health insurer Aetna Inc said on Friday it will pay for a
greater number of patients to receive Provenge, the prostate cancer
drug made by Dendreon Corp.
Aetna will now provide coverage for patients with
metastatic prostate cancer who have failed to respond to hormone
therapy and whose disease has spread to the lungs or the brain.
Previously, patients whose cancer spread to the
brain or lungs were not covered. Patients whose disease has spread to
the liver still are not covered.
Provenge, the first personalized, therapeutic
vaccine to reach the market, has taken off to a disappointing start amid
confusion among physicians over reimbursement. It costs roughly $93,000
per treatment.
In 2011, it generated just $213.5 million, roughly half of what the company had originally projected.
Provenge was approved in the United States in
April 2010 and has been plagued by controversy ever since. Provenge
extended median survival by 4.1 months, to 25.8 months from 21.7 months,
in a clinical trial.
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