FDA cancer chief says 'escalating' drug prices can't continue

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - By law, Dr. Richard Pazdur, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's cancer drug czar, is not allowed to consider the cost of treatments his agency reviews, only whether they are safe and effective. But Pazdur is not blind to escalating drug prices and the growing debate over how to place an appropriate value on cancer drugs, which can cost $100,000 a year or more a year. "It's very difficult for me to talk about," Pazdur said in an interview at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, where the issue of value has been a consistent theme among the world's top cancer doctors. She said to me, 'Rick, the price is what anybody is willing to pay for it.'" In his view, the same applies to cancer drugs.



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