There is some good news; the New York State Legislature has passed the Oral Chemotherapy Equity Bill. However, before this bill can become law we have to have Governor Cuomo sign it, we need all of our New York Residents to contact the governor and ask that he signs it. […]
My recent Letter to the Editor of the New York Times in response to the Op-Ed piece decrying the cost of cancer treatments: Your recent editorial about the high cost of cancer drugs missed a number of very significant points which must be considered. Yes, newly developed cancer drugs are expensive, but when treatments like [...]
We dodged a bullet… for now! I’m pleased to report that the House just approved the FY12 DoD Appropriations Bill by a vote of 331-83. No amendments were offered to reduce or eliminate CDMRP (the Department of Defense Medical Research Program) funding. At this time we have managed to maintain the funding for the Prostate [...]
Yesterday there was an amendment passed on the House floor to restore the Prostate Cancer Research Program's 2012 funding to $80 million. The Department of Defense (DoD) Appropriations Bill (H.R. 2219) originally was slated to allocate only $64 million to the Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP), a 20% reduction from last year’s funding. Restoring these [...]
Yesterday Dendreon, the producers of Provenge, received word from the FDA that their plant in California had been approved to manufacture Provenge. This afternoon they received a positive response from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that a final National Coverage Decision (NCD) for Provenge has been issued requiring Medicare contractors to cover [...]