Breast Cancer Drug Strains Health Budgets

An effective but expensive breast cancer drug — Herceptin — is pressuring cash-strapped healthcare budgets in Europe, a report said Tuesday.

The drug, which is marketed by California-based Genentech Inc. and Swiss-based Roche Holding AG, costs up to $86,000 per year per person.

Europe’s main medical regulator, the European Medicines Agency, last week recommended that Herceptin be approved to fight early stage HER-2 breast cancer.

However, the regulation still must be endorsed by the European Commission, The Wall Street Journal reported.

In Britain, a recent appeals court ruling ordered arms of the National Health Service to provide the drug — a further strain on the already cash-strapped agencies.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also is weighing whether to allow use of the drug to treat early stages of the disease that accounts for up to 30 percent of breast cancers.

Since reports of Herceptin’s effectiveness last spring, the drug’s U.S. sales more than doubled in the first quarter of 2006 to $290 million.