Our View on Pricing

We understand the concerns expressed about the price of cancer drugs. We are committed to engaging in a dialogue with patients, physicians and other interested parties about what it takes to try to cure cancer, our dedication to making our medicines accessible to all patients who need them, and the larger societal concerns about the cost of health care.

• Focus on Curing Cancer

  One of the goals we strive toward every day is to find a cure for cancer. The American Cancer Society has estimated that more than half a million Americans died of cancer and more than 1.4 million Americans were diagnosed with new cancers in 2009. Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the United States, exceeded only by heart disease.

  Our cancer therapies are breakthroughs that change the standard of care and help patients with cancer live longer lives. We are making real headway towards the goal of shifting cancer from a death sentence to a chronic disease that can be managed and controlled — or defeated entirely.

  We are focused on finding truly innovative scientific pathways and targets (e.g. our discovery of VEGF, HER2). In the past 13 years, we have launched four novel drugs that have proven to extend survival in various forms of cancer, and we are committed to continuing to develop better therapies for cancer patients.

  The pricing of our therapies reflects the difficulties of trying to find cures for cancer. Our approach to drug development is expensive, risky and time-consuming. Most of our projects fail. It took approximately 25 years and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in Herceptin® (Trastuzumab) before we generated data demonstrating that use in early-stage patients cut breast cancer recurrence by half. When trying to cure cancer, progress can take many years and is filled with false starts and dead-ends.

  The investments we make to develop novel medicines are only viable if there is a reasonable return and if our business is sustainable. Our cancer medicines are generally priced competitively with other recently launched cancer products.

  It is our hope that drugs like Genentech's Herceptin, Avastin® (bevacizumab), Rituxan® (Rituximab), and Tarceva® (erlotinib) are the first wave of an evolution towards safer and more effective therapies. We continue to invest billions of dollars to develop breakthrough therapies that have the potential to be revolutionary steps forward in cancer treatment. We believe that the investments we are making today will make cancer a disease we can one day all survive.

• Commitment to Patient Access

  Genentech is committed to patients having access to our therapies. Through its Genentech Access Solutions program, the company provides patients and healthcare providers with coverage and reimbursement support, patient assistance and informational resources. Patient assistance support is for those eligible patients in the United States who do not have insurance coverage or who cannot afford their out-of-pocket co-pay costs.

  Since 1985, when our first product was approved, Genentech has donated approximately $2.85 billion in free medicine to uninsured patients through its Genentech® Access to Care Foundation (GATCF) and other charitable programs.
  The company recently expanded GATCF to provide free drug to eligible patients who have private insurance and have met or exceeded their lifetime maximum benefits. In February 2007, the company announced the expansion of GATCF to help address the needs of financially eligible patients enrolled in a Medicare Part D plan who are prescribed Tarceva® (erlotinib).

  Genentech Access Solutions

  For patients and their health care providers, Genentech Access Solutions provides coverage and reimbursement support, patient assistance and information resources. For more information on potential assistance options, please call (866) 4 ACCESS or visit the Access Solutions website.

  Co-pay Assistance

  Since 2005, Genentech has donated approximately $725 million to co-pay assistance foundations. To learn more about these independent, public charities, patients can speak with a specialist from Genentech's Access Solutions group by calling (866) 4 ACCESS or Access Solutions website.

  Avastin Patient Assistance Program

  The Avastin Patient Assistance program provides an opportunity for physicians and eligible patients who are treated for an FDA-approved indication and who reach an annual dosage of 10,000 mg to receive free Avastin from Genentech for the remainder of the 12-month period.

  This program is open to all patients receiving Avastin regardless of insurance coverage and is accessible through the Genentech Access Solutions program.

  For more information, please call (866) 4 ACCESS or visit the Access Solutions website.

• Concerns About Health Care Costs

  In the United States, men have an approximately 1 in 2 lifetime risk of developing cancer, and for women the risk is a little more than 1 in 3.¹ Today, about a third of those who develop cancer in the United States will die of the disease, an improvement over the 50 percent mortality rate from cancer in the 1970s. The improvement in survival reflects progress in diagnosing certain cancers as well as improvements in treatment. The death rates from heart disease have also plummeted over the last 30 years, in no small part due to statins, so drugs can make a big difference in helping people with disease live longer.

  Contrary to what many people assume, drugs are a fairly small piece of the puzzle when it comes to health care costs — and cancer drugs are only a small slice of that piece. Health care costs were 16 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2005, and prescription drugs represented only 10 percent of those total health care costs.^2,3 Of that 10 percent of total health care costs going to prescription drugs, only five percent went to cancer medicines.⁴

  We understand societal concerns that our health care system is too expensive, and we are interested in discussing and partnering on solutions to improve our system. The "simple" solution of reducing drug prices will have a marginal effect on health care costs while stifling R&D investment in new treatments. We believe reduced investment in R&D would be a regrettable outcome at a time when our vastly improved understanding of cancer biology may give us the tools to significantly extend the lives of patients with cancer.

  Improving outcomes for patients with cancer will be a long and expensive journey, but we believe it is a good investment for us as a company and for the United States as a country.

  1. American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts & Figures 2009
  2. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Health Expenditure Data Highlights.
  3. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Nation's Health Dollar, Calendar Year 2005: Where It Went.
  4. Intercontinental Marketing Services (IMS) Health. IMS National Sales Perspectives. 2006