The prices of pharmaceuticals are coming under increasing
scrutiny in today's age of cost constraints. Drug development is
expensive, but governments and healthcare payers are not always
willing to pay the price that pharmaceutical companies are In
the UK, the National Health System (NHS) has taken the
controversial step of cutting the cost of treating wet age-
related macular degeneration (AMD) by prescribing a cheaper drug
over a more expensive one. The controversial element? The
cheaper drug isn't licensed for wet AMD. The approved treatment
for AMD is Lucentis (Ranibzumab), which is marketed by Genentech
(now owned by Roche) in the US and by Novartis elsewhere. The
drug costs around $1190, but has been approved by the UK's
cost–effectiveness evaluation agency, But according to the NHS,
Roche's Avastin (bevacizumab) is just as effective and costs
significantly less—around $80. The UK's National Institute for
Health Research Health Technology Assessment has even funded a
study examining the two drugs. The re