Only a handful of people have been treated with Kite Pharmaceuticals' Yescarta since its approval, Bloomberg reports. The CAR T-cell therapy received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to treat large B-cell lymphoma in October.
Five patients have since been treated with the drug, Bloomberg says, noting that the waiting list has grown to some 200 people. Doctors at cancer hospitals tell the news service the delay is due to issues surrounding payment for the $373,000 drug. With hospital and doctors fees factored in, the treatment could cost $1 million, it notes.
Bloomberg reports that there's no Medicare reimbursement code for the treatment, meaning that hospitals might not get paid for it. As more than half of patients with relapsed non-Hodgkin lymphoma are over the age of 65, Bloomberg says Medicare coverage is "critical."
In addition, it reports that private insurers are making coverage decisions on a case-by-case basis. It says, thought, that insurer Anthem has said that it would cover the treatment and that Gilead Sciences, which owns Kite, says that most private insurers have said they'd cover it.
Bloomberg adds that some hospitals are going ahead and treating patients without the assurance they'll be paid, while others are having patients sign forms saying they'll cover the cost if their insurance does not and yet others are waiting for coverage certainty.