‘Paradigm shift’: Govt to fund $200,000 one-time treatment for multiple myeloma
Hundreds of patients are expected to benefit each year, says Minister for Health and Ageing Mark Butler.
A single-infusion multiple myeloma therapy that costs $200,000 will be offered free to patients who have tried four other treatment lines, the Federal Government has announced.
Ciltacabtagene autoleucel (Carvykti) is a chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy that is “on a whole different stratosphere” to other myeloma therapies, haematologist Dr Christian Bryant tells AusDoc.
He said that other new drugs for these patients generally worked in only a third of them, and for only a few months, when given as single agents.
But 98% of patients responded to Carvykti in the CARTITUDE-1 study, he said.
