Genentech fan

Former Merck CEO Prods Industry on Drug Pricing

Dr. Vagelos points the finger at Genentech for charging "unsustainable" prices for a cancer drug that is utilized by mere thousands of patients rather than the millions of patients Merck's statin drug is sold to. As a result, Merck only has to charge each patient several hundred dollars a month to earn 2-3 times the revenue that Genentech earns from Avastin. Perhaps Dr. Vagelos would have only drug companies in business that research and discover only "mainstream" drugs for the masses (that mediate pain but also cause heart attacks) and not the lifesaving drugs like Herceptin for breast cancer that has saved thousand of women's lives. Dr. Vagelos conveniently forgot to point out that Merck has reaped tens of billions more in revenue from the same system that he says can't sustain the cost of Avastin.