BETHESDA, Md., Aug. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Northwest
Biotherapeutics (OTC.BB: NWBO) reminded markets, in response to
recent investor concerns about Dendreon’s Provenge immune therapy,
that NWBT’s DCVax® immune therapies for a broad range of
cancers (including prostate, brain, ovarian and others) hold the
promise, based on available data to date, of being cost effective
and priced below other immune therapies while still providing
substantial profit margins for the Company and longer survival for
patients.
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The investor concerns in the news relate to the pricing and
reimbursement of Provenge for late stage, metastatic prostate
cancer. Provenge is priced at $93,000 for one
month of treatment and was approved by the FDA based upon
having added 4.5 months of patient survival (to reach
overall survival of 25.9 months).
NWBT’s DCVax® will be priced in the range of
$37,000 per year for up to 3 years of treatments. In
NWBT’s Phase I/II multi-center clinical trial in late stage,
metastatic prostate cancer, DCVax® added 18 months of
patient survival (to reach overall survival of 38.7 months).
DCVax® has previously been cleared by the FDA for a
612-patient, randomized, controlled Phase III trial, although the
trial has not yet begun. As is typical before a Phase III
trial, the manufacturing processes and product costs have already
been determined.
Linda Powers, Chairman of the NWBT Board and CEO commented that
“It is really important that pricing and reimbursement
concerns associated with certain immune therapies, such as
Provenge, not cause a disillusionment with all of the emerging
immune therapies for cancer. Some of these, such as DCVax®,
while at an earlier stage of development, continue to prog
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