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Mike Mitka

JAMA. 2007;297:1538-1539.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The press release seems simple enough: "The National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health will fund a new multicenter clinical trial to compare 2 drugs currently used to treat advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD)." But its ramifications are enormous.

The drugs in question are ranibizumab (Lucentis) and bevacizumab (Avastin), both manufactured by Genentech Inc, of South San Francisco. Currently, only ranibizumab is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating neovascular AMD. And it works well, with more than 90% of patients reporting a halt in vision loss and about 30% reporting improved sight.

But a single dose of ranibizumab costs almost $2000 (or $48 000 for a typical 2-year course of monthly treatments). Although Medicare pays for ranibizumab, it covers only 80% of the cost, meaning that patients who do not have coinsurance pay $9600 out of pocket for a 2-year course. (Genentech . . . [Full Text of this Article]