Cancer drugs' high costs stifle cure hopes

Future cancer therapies could be tailored to suit individual patients, but because the drugs are so expensive and will have a limited market they may never be made.

There are already a few drugs on the market that target specific protein receptors in cancer and thanks to the decoding of the human genome more could be on the way.

But an expert at Britain's Institute of Cancer Research said new treatments might not emerge because of the high costs for drug companies.

"This new treatment approach poses formidable problems for the pharmaceutical industry," Dr Keith Snell said.

Personalised medicine, pharmacogenomics, offers great promise to patients because the therapy is so specialised.

But Dr Snell said it cost about US$100 million ($211 million) to develop a cancer drug and only about one in 10 of them made it to the market.

The number of patients who would be treated with a particular drug would be confined to a small, genetically defined subgroup.

"What this means for big pharma is no more blockbuster drugs generating blockbuster profits. This is bad news for patients," he said.

Sales would not cover development costs.

- REUTERS

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