FDA panel votes against Avastin for breast cancer treatment [View All]

Source: Washington Post

A Food and Drug Administration panel took a major step Wednesday toward ending use of the best-selling drug Avastin for treating advanced breast cancer in the United States, despite appeals from distraught patients and the company manufacturing the drug.

A crucial six-member FDA advisory committee unanimously concluded that the drug was harming women more than it was helping them. FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg must make a final decision, but agency commissioners usually follow advisory panel recommendations.

The fate of the drug for breast cancer has been closely watched by patients, oncologists, women’s health advocates, health-care policymakers, politicians and the pharmaceutical industry. The case has triggered strong reactions from advocates of easier access to new treatments and from critics fearing health-care rationing. It is also being seen as one of the most visible medical examples of scientific evidence winning out over an animated public outcry. Ultimately, clinical trials failed to support the drug’s early promise for breast cancer treatment.

“I think we all wanted Avastin to succeed, but the reality is that these studies did not bear out that hope,” said Natalie Compagni Portis, who represented patients on the panel.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/fda-panel-votes-against-avastin-for-breast-cancer-treatment/2011/06/28/AGfGmMrH_story.html

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The right-wing will accuse the FDA of "rationing care", but in reality, Avastin has shown very little effectiveness against breast cancer, and has shown adverse side effects.