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In: Legislation

Today, Manon Ress, Founder and Acting Director of the Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment, delivered a letter to 17 Republican Senators, urging them to vote no on the Graham-Cassidy “health care” bill. UACT visited Senate leadership, including Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX), as well as the original authors of the bill, Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Additional letters were delivered to the GOP members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and to key Senators who could stop this bill. The full copy of UACT’s letter can be found copied below and isRead More →

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In: Actions

The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA has responded on behalf of the University of California to UACT’s recent letters on the Xtandi (INN:enzalutamide) patent in India. In a letter sent by post dated September 7, 2017, received on September 19, 2017, (copy  here)Dr. John C. Mazziotta, the Vice Chancellor for UCLA Health Sciences and the CEO of the UCLA Health System wrote to UACT, rejecting the request by UACT and others that the University abandon its appeal of a rejection of enzalutamide patent in India. Mazziotta did say “UC has brought to Medivation’s attention the concerns UACT has raised, ” but that wasRead More →

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In: Actions, Negotiations

Today, UACT submitted letters to the CEOs of three major pharmaceutical companies currently developing chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) technologies.  UACT asked the leaders of Novartis, Gilead Sciences, and Juno Therapeutics to address questions regarding research and development (R&D) costs, federal-funding received, potential public health impact, and ensuring equitable and affordable access to CAR T treatments in the US and around the world. The first CAR T treatment was approved by the FDA yesterday, a treatment for leukemia in children and young adults produced by Novartis, and was quickly announced to carry a $475,000 price tag. As this new area of cancer-treating technologies emerges,Read More →

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On August 31, 2017, UACT sent a letter to Francis Collins, the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), regarding the emerging chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) technologies that are currently being developed across a number of pharmaceutical companies and institutions.  On August 30, 2017, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made the first approval of a CAR T treatment, a leukemia treatment by Novartis for children and young adults. Novartis announced it would charge $475,000 for the treatment. In the UACT letter to Dr. Collins, we ask the NIH to communicate more information to public regarding the NIH role in developing, patentingRead More →

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In: Report

By Julie Chmelikova There are currently 28 EU member states, yet their health care systems vary substantially and are based on national policies. Reimbursement models, health care expenditures, availability of resources and accessibility of drugs are just some of the aspects of health care where major differences occur. Access to cancer drugs is an especially pressing issue that demonstrates vividly the differences in access to health care across the EU. The inequality is evident for example in the case of Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, where patients do not have access to many innovative cancer drugs, such as Kadcyla (breast cancer), Jevtana (prostate cancer), Dacogen (acuteRead More →