{"id":483,"date":"2014-12-08T18:09:50","date_gmt":"2014-12-08T18:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/?p=483"},"modified":"2017-08-21T12:08:40","modified_gmt":"2017-08-21T12:08:40","slug":"primary-care-corner-with-geoffrey-modest-md-and-more-big-pharma-shenanigans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/2014\/12\/08\/primary-care-corner-with-geoffrey-modest-md-and-more-big-pharma-shenanigans\/","title":{"rendered":"Primary Care Corner with Geoffrey Modest MD: And more big pharma shenanigans"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Dr. Geoffrey Modest<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, what’s wrong with this picture???<\/p>\n

\"Lucentis\"<\/a><\/p>\n

–Genentech came out with Lucentis, a new product in 2006 used by ophthalmologists to treat macular degeneration<\/p>\n

–It costs $2000\/dose<\/p>\n

–It is “nearly equivalent” to Avastin and was approved only for this same indication. Several studies have concluded that “Lucentis has no significant advantage over its cheaper alternative”<\/p>\n

–Avastin costs $50\/dose<\/p>\n

–Lucentis is one of Medicare’s most expensive drugs, costing the federal government\u00a0$1 billion in 2010\u00a0. Avastin was still much more commonly used, though Medicare\u00a0spent only $27 million on it that year. In fact a study in 2011 showed that if all patients on Lucentis had received Avastin, the government\u00a0would have saved $1.4 billion<\/p>\n

–And, many of the doctors “who were top billers for Lucentis were among the highest paid\u00a0consultants for Genentech, earning thousands of dollars to help promote the drug”<\/p>\n

–1\/2 of the 20 doctors who received the most money from Genentech were among the highest users, “billing for higher amounts of Lucentis than 75% of their peers”, and also\u00a0earning $8500 to $37000 in 5 months in 2013 for consultant and speaking fees.<\/p>\n

–Genentech has even been paying “rebates” to doctors who use lots of Lucentis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And more big pharma shenanigans […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14283],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmjebmspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}