Breast Cancer Patient Advocates Concerned About Relationship With Genentech If Acquired By Roche

Main Category: Breast Cancer
Also Included In: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 18 Aug 2008 - 0:00 PST

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Advocates, including those for breast cancer patients, are concerned about their relationship with pharmaceutical company Genentech following Roche's bid for the company, the Wall Street Journal reports. Genentech announced on Wednesday that it had rejected Roche's $44 billion bid for the 44% of the company that it does not already own, but Genentech invited a higher offer, signaling the company's "days as an independent concern may be numbered," the Journal reports.

According to the Journal, Genentech's rapport with patient advocates is unusual among drugmakers, particularly because of the extent to which it has brought advocates into the company's culture. Although relations between Genentech and patient groups often have been "prickly," the company says input from advocates has prompted important changes in the design of clinical trials and has helped establish programs to improve access to medicines, the Journal reports. For example, advocates say their efforts to recruit patients for Genentech trials and to put pressure on FDA helped accelerate the approval of Herceptin, a breast cancer drug. In 1994, the AIDS advocacy group ACT UP joined together with cancer patients to pressure Genentech to make Herceptin, which was not ready for the market, available to "desperately ill" patients, the Journal reports.

After Genentech turned down the request regarding Herceptin, groups "laid siege" to the company, periodically jamming fax machines and protesting at Genentech headquarters, according to the Journal. However, after two high-profile patients died, the drugmaker announced a policy to provide early access to the drug and worked with advocates to set up a lottery system to select patients who would get the drug, since there was a limited supply at the time. FDA in September 1998 approved Herceptin three weeks after an advisory panel recommended the drug -- a quick turnaround for which advocates said they were partially responsible. Susan Desmond-Hellmann, Genentech's president for product development who handled the early-access talks, said, "There were many difficult challenges. In that moment of inexperience, we (listened). We faced their anger. We saw they had unique insights ... that complement ours." Advocate Robert Erwin said, "From that point on, the relationship between Genentech and the advocacy community has steadily improved."

Roche said that if it acquired Genentech, it would allow Genentech to maintain its creative independence and that patients would benefit from the acquisition. Barbara Brenner, executive director of Breast Cancer Action, said, "Genentech has actually gone out of its way to engage conversations with the activist community." Brenner added, "We rarely agree, but at least we can talk to them. I have trouble imagining that will continue if Roche owns the company" (Chase, Wall Street Journal, 8/14).

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