Vitter, Breitbart Revive Death Panel Smear In Attack On FDA Breast Cancer Drug Decision

Senator David Vitter (R-LA)
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In one fell swoop today, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) revived the specter of health care death panels, and called into question the FDA’s ability to judge the effectiveness of breast cancer medication.

According to the Associated Press, Vitter slammed the FDA, which voted 12-1 to drop its endorsement of the breast cancer drug Avastin after research showed that its additional positive effects were minimal, but it was associated with increased liver toxicity. Vitter called the decision “sickening” — but not because the FDA’s accelerated approval of the drug in 2007 went against the medical advise of its advisory committee or because women with metastatic breast cancer using the drug were more likely to die. Instead, he compared the FDA’s reversal to withholding care for patients whose lives are “not deemed valuable enough.”

This puts Vitter into the same camp as noted pharmaceutical expert Andrew Breitbart, whose website Big Government today lambasted the FDA for “rationing.”

“As tragic as it is for breast cancer patients today, this arbitrary shift is a preview of one of the tools in the government health care rationing toolbox,” reads a column on Breitbart’s site.

“The government is not just saying outright that they won’t cover the cost of this, they are hiding their financial decisions behind language like “clinically meaningful” to lead people to believe the drug doesn’t work,” the article continues. “The Avantis [sic] case is setting the precedent for the government to arbitrarily deny coverage to millions of American’s based on cost alone.”

Meanwhile, the Boston Globe quotes a specialist familiar with Avastin’s development saying that the ruling has limited implications. “What the FDA would be saying is … for women with breast cancer, Avastin with paclitaxel was not better than paclitaxel alone. It doesn’t mean the drug wouldn’t work for other types of breast cancer or with other types of chemotherapy. Or for other types of cancer,” said Dr. Mark Kieran, who studies vascular biology in the same lab as Dr. Judah Folkman, who, according to the Globe, advanced the theories that led to Avastin’s creation.

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