Kymriah Cost, Effectiveness, How it Works, Treatment Centers. There’s a new way to treat cancer and it has recently gained the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Kymriah is a gene-therapy approach to cancer treatment which is pioneered by Swiss drugmaker Novartis. The drug maker is also going through the process of having the treatment approved by the European Medicines Agency and be made available in Europe.
Does it Work? Well, it wouldn’t have gained the approval of the FDA if it does not work, right? However, the Kymriah cell treatment has only been approved for the treatment of patients up to 25 years of age with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that is refractory or in second or later relapse. In other words, this is not meant for all cancer patients. As you may note in the Reuters report below, the drug maker is seeking to also get Kymriah approved for adult patients.
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How Much is a Kymriah Cell Treatment? According to a recent Reuters report, the Kymriah cost or price tag is $475,000. From Reuters: “Novartis has set the price for Kymriah at $475,000 for young patients with ALL, but the Basel-based company has pushed back announcing the price for adult DLBCL patients until it wins FDA approval.”
What’s the Treatment Procedure Like? The FDA media release gives us a general idea on how the Kymriah cell treatment is administered: “The patient’s T-cells are collected and sent to a manufacturing center where they are genetically modified to include a new gene that contains a specific protein (a chimeric antigen receptor or CAR) that directs the T-cells to target and kill leukemia cells that have a specific antigen (CD19) on the surface. Once the cells are modified, they are infused back into the patient to kill the cancer cells.”
Any Side Effects? Kymriah cell treatment can have serious and severe adverse reactions including fatal or life-threatening events. From the FDA media release:
Treatment with Kymriah has the potential to cause severe side effects. It carries a boxed warning for cytokine release syndrome (CRS), which is a systemic response to the activation and proliferation of CAR T-cells causing high fever and flu-like symptoms, and for neurological events. Both CRS and neurological events can be life-threatening. Other severe side effects of Kymriah include serious infections, low blood pressure (hypotension), acute kidney injury, fever, and decreased oxygen (hypoxia).
Because of these serious and life-threatening side effects, the Kymriah procedure can only be administered in treatment centers accredited by Novartis. The FDA also requires that “hospitals and their associated clinics that dispense Kymriah be specially certified. As part of that certification, staff involved in the prescribing, dispensing, or administering of Kymriah are required to be trained to recognize and manage CRS and neurological events”.
Where to Undergo Kymriah Treatment? So now you know the Kymriah cost, the side effects of the procedure, and how it is done but where do you go if you want to undergo treatment? Novartis lists the following treatment centers across the United States. Note that this list may be updated in the future.
MIDWEST:
Illinois
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago*
Chicago, IL
(312) 227-4844
University of Chicago Medicine*
Chicago, IL
(844) 482-7823
Michigan
Michigan Medicine*
University of Michigan Medical Center
Ann Arbor, MI
(734) 232-7594
Minnesota
University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital*
Minneapolis, MN
(612) 365-8100
Missouri
The Children’s Mercy Hospital
Kansas City, MO
(816) 302-6808
Washington University School of Medicine at St. Louis Children’s Hospital*
Siteman Kids
St. Louis, MO
(314) 454-6018
Ohio
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center*
Cincinnati, OH
(513) 636-4200
Wisconsin
UWHealth/American Family Children’s Hospital*
Madison, WI
(608) 263-6200
NORTHEAST:
Maryland
Johns Hopkins Children’s Center*
The Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children’s Center
Baltimore, MD
(855) 434-1928
Massachusetts
Dana-Farber Boston Children’s Cancer & Blood Disorders Center
Boston, MA
(617) 919-7008
New Jersey
Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital at Hackensack Meridian Health*
Hackensack, NJ
(551) 996-5600
New York
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, NY
(212) 639-5836
NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center
New York, NY
(212) 305-9770
Pennsylvania
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia*
Philadelphia, PA
(267) 426-0762
Penn Medicine
Abramson Cancer Center
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 316-5127
SOUTHEAST:
Alabama
The Children’s Hospital of Alabama
Birmingham, AL
(205) 638-9285
Florida
Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital
St. Petersburg, FL
(727) 767-4176
Moffitt Cancer Center
Tampa, FL
(888) 663-3488
Georgia
Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Atlanta, GA
(404) 785-1608
North Carolina
Duke Health
Durham, NC
(919) 668-1100
Tennessee
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville, TN
(615) 936-6989
SOUTHWEST:
Arizona
Phoenix Children’s Hospital*
Phoenix, AZ
(480) 826-4251
Texas
Children’s Medical Center Dallas*
Pauline Allen Gill Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders
Dallas, TX
(214) 456-2978
Texas Children’s Hospital
Houston, TX
(832) 824-4661
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
(855) 404-7230
WEST:
California
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles*
Los Angeles, CA
(323) 361-4100
Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford
Palo Alto, CA
(650) 497-8000
Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego
San Diego, CA
(858) 966-5811
UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital*
The Pediatric Cancer Immunotherapy Program: A Collaboration of the Pediatric Cancer and Blood Disease Program and Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Program
San Francisco, CA
(415) 476-2188
Colorado
Children’s Hospital Colorado
Aurora, CO
(720) 777-5179
Oregon
Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU)*
Portland, OR
(503) 418-5341
Utah
Primary Children’s Hospital*
Salt Lake City, UT
(801) 662-4720
Will the Kymriah cost of treatment be the same in all these centers? We honestly don’t know. If it varies, we assume the variation will be slight.
Kymriah Cost, Effectiveness, How it Works, Treatment Centers. Posted 13 November 2017.