Prostate cancer patients told treatment isn’t available at public hospitals

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Men with aggressive prostate cancer who were being treated with a groundbreaking drug have been told the therapy is no longer available at public hospitals. Lutetium PSMA was being compounded locally, but after a pharmaceutical giant took legal action, public hospitals say they can't offer the treatment anymore.

Transcript

00:00Paul Singleton was enjoying retirement when he was diagnosed with aggressive metastatic

00:08prostate cancer.

00:09They mentioned three or four years, which was quite a shock really.

00:14That was five years ago. He was offered lutetium PSMA, a radioligand that held back progression

00:21of the disease. After five cycles of the therapy, his doctor said the hospital could no longer

00:27provide it.

00:28That's a very devastating situation to be in.

00:32Radioligand molecules have a radioactive part and one that binds to a protein on the surface

00:38of cancer cells, together delivering a targeted dose of radiation.

00:43Lutetium is a game-changing nuclear therapy.

00:47The therapy Paul received was a generic version, compounded locally. Public hospitals stopped

00:53offering it after legal action initiated by Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, which

00:58holds key patents for lutetium-based radioligand therapy.

01:02For men with aggressive and advanced forms of prostate cancer, if they cannot access this

01:08treatment, they will die.

01:10A dose of the generic costs about $6,000, whereas Novartis' version is $30,000 to $50,000.

01:18The government recently approved lutetium PSMA for public funding on the medical benefits

01:24scheme and based that on the price of the generic. Now that public hospitals won't offer

01:30it, patients face significant, possibly prohibitive, out-of-pocket costs.

01:35The current framework for assessing and reimbursing radiopharmaceuticals is not currently fit for purpose.

01:43He wants the government to resolve how these drugs are approved, because several new ones

01:48are in the pipeline for various cancers. The Department of Health said the process currently

01:54in place is appropriate for these therapies.

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