Topic: Price of Herceptin?

I know what you mean.  I calculated my year of herceptin at $142,000.

 We have to pay for those countries where the socialized medicine will paid the manufacturer  a much lower  amount than we pay and for the uninsured that get the drug for free.

Mine has been about $3k a pop in the Baltimore area.

I think my herceptin bill runs about 8K a shot! 

As my socialized plan has decided to stop paying for my herceptin, I'm now looking at paying "out of pocket".  My insurance won't cover herceptin.  Let's see, $142K a year.  I don't think my house is worth that much.  I was curious about this thread because I suspected herceptin cost about that much but wasn't sure.

I'm trying not to freak out about this too much.  My children need a home and that appears to be my next option. 

I think it's time for me to start sitting on the corner with a tin cup.

When I stop and take a chemo break, my onc wants me to continue with Herceptin because she strongly believes it still continues to work with me.  Each time I've taken a chemo break, herceptin has kept me stable for as little as 6 months and as long as a year.  The government told her that because I'm metastatic and I went back on chemo again after mild progression, Herceptin obviously stopped working for me so why spend more money if it's not going to work after chemo.  Point taken, but everyone's different and I think this should be addressed on a case by case basis.  I don't think they're taking my prior history into account.

My onc suspects I have a new primary and not a metastatic spread.  If this is the case, they may relent.  I suppose that puts me into the category of having a "newly diagnosed cancer".  Weird - I don't understand it.

My guess is that the government is cracking down because of the recession and trying to cut costs.  It sounds drastic but it's cheaper for them if I'm dead.  That's a lot of money to spend on one person a year. My hubby calls me a pragmatist.

I don't feel as though it's the government's responsibility to pay for my medicine.  I just wish that they made their decisions less heavy handedly.  Why pick and choose?  Because insurance assumes that the government pays 100% of the time, there's no safety net in place.  My insurance covers non-IV meds (cause the government covers this), hospital stays, etc.

I'm not going to panic yet, it doesn't do my healing any good.

Sorry for the long post, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Cheryl, is there any way you can appeal to the drug company that manufactures Herceptin (Genentech)?  Although they are recently is a buy out to Roche - they also manufacture Avastin and are doing (or so I thought) quite well financially.  My oncologist's office in the States suggested I do that in case my insurance company did not cover (they ended up covering) Herceptin or Avastin.

I know there has been a lot of debate as to when and in what instance to use these very expensive drugs on Stage IV patients - and it's doesn't look like it will be resolved soon.   I wish you the best of luck.  Perhaps your onc's office can help you with the appeal for financial assistance?

I think the cost of a year's treatment with herceptin is about $40,000 in Canada.  What about the Trillium fund - would they pay for herceptin or tykerb?

I'm not on medicare yet but I can't believe herceptin is a pharm product!  It is an IV infused drug, although technically not a chemo but a targeted therapy.  I do remember though someone mentioned before that they had to get their tx administered in a hospital in order for them to be paid for.  Is that the case for you maybe?  Are you on medicare?  If so, you need to figure out a new plan to go with as soon as open enrollment opens up, in the meantime start applying to the drug mfg to get a grant to cover your costs.

Asking for an information.

I'm a Canadian living in Ontario, just had my second surgery yesterday Jan.04. The surgery doctor told me before it that I will most probably get treatment with Herceptin for a year. I don't know who supposes to pay it because I'm not working. Does the social medical insurance cover it in Ontarion?

Im from Nfld and they covered me for the year following my initial dx after having a recurrence my onc has told me that I would be covered again.  If Not  well I guess I will start hounding my member of Parliment,  when it was initially approved there wasn't a time limit or amount of time put on it.  My source tells me that the government has approved Herceptin as part of our medical plan.  I don't know if it's just for nfld. or if every province is different.  But I would surely start climbing up the provincial government ladder to the top until I had some answers.

Dawn

The range of charges for Herceptin discussed here is incredible. For what it's worth, I get a Herceptin infusion of 180 mg every week (will get  52 treatments  before I am through) and each one costs right at $1,100 USD for the drug. The oncology center gets another $215 to put it in me. These are costs my HMO is paying. Add about 40% more for an approximate self-pay charge. I know they calculate the cost of the Herceptin by the amount that is used, since my dose has been changed a couple of times as my weight increased and then fell as a result of my chemo.

bird