Today, I spent most of the day listening to the CME (Medicare & Medicaid) hearing on Provenge. CME does not have to abide to the decisions of the advisory committee, so like we experienced with the FDA Advisory Committees we will have to wait and see what will eventually become the policy for reimbursement.

I am going out on a limb, but I am going to predict that the result of the meeting will be that that CMS will continue to reimburse for Provenge, but ONLY for men on who meet the strict FDA label. I believe that the advisory committee did find that there was reasonable evidence that Provenge did extend life as compared to the control group and did show that Provenge does reduce the burden of cancer and its treatments.

Now, we wait with our fingers crossed.

Joel T Nowak, M.A., M.S.W.