To: James Seagrove who wrote (125518 ) 12/1/2016 1:40:00 AM From: Elroy Jetson Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 219459 Based on your comments I have to conclude you've not received medical care in many other industrialized nations. The Doctors and specialists here in and around Beverly Hills are among the best. Far better than you'd find in New York, San Francisco, or other major US cities. But I've received far better medical care in Australia, and all without the dubious ceremony of visiting one of the "loan officers" who validate your insurance coverage.A current ad campaign on American television for Opdivo really highlights many of the defects in our profit driven healthcare industry. America is just about the only place in our planet where you can find advertising of prescription drugs direct to consumers (DTC). It's not legal most places. Designer humanized antibodies sold under names like Opdivo, Keytruda, Yervoy or Rituxan are an important therapy which have been evolving over the past 30 years. They can be designed to attach to cancerous or infected cells to mark them for destruction by your immune system. The results can be amazing and the side-effects often quite minimal. Many were developed at universities like UCLA but brought to the market by major pharma firms. Here in America you'll pay, or someone else will pay on your behalf, $400,000 for a course of treatment with one of these newer antibodies, but 75% less in other countries around the world due to competitive bidding. George W. Bush and Congress specifically prohibited Medicare from competitive bidding for pharmaceutical products - just idiotic. But this is just one part of the problem. Practical experience has shown that an antibody like Opdivo which is 82% effective in treating advanced Hodgkins Lymphoma, and approved for that indication, can also treat many other types of advanced cancers with various degrees of success. A firm like Bristol-Myers-Squibb doesn't need to advertise Opdivo for most cancers because it's very effective so these products sell themselves . Bristol-Myers spent money on a study treating a particular type of lung cancer with the Opdivo antibody but found the results were barely measurable. Patients with terminal advanced lung cancer, already horribly ill from prior chemotherapies, lived 3 month longer when given a $400,000 series of treatment with Opdivo antibodies. Some even died early from reactions to Opdivo. Needless to say most Doctors, investors and reasonable people think 3 extra months of extremely ill living to be a bad investment of $400,000 . Bristol-Myers-Squibb lost $20 billion in share price after this failure was reported.VIDEO So Bristol-Myers is spending $150 million a year on television ads promoting Opdivo for this failed use direct to people with terminal lung cancer - promising them more life (12 weeks to be specific), when other drugs provide more benefit ! Watch the TV ad : ispot.tv I'm not proud of this system of healthcare. It's disgusting.This is an investor update. How much does this sound like a caring medical provider? Bristol-Myers Squibb plans to spend more money on direct-to-consumer advertising for its immuno-oncology drug, Opdivo, company executives told investors during a first-quarter earnings call. BMS CFO Charles Bancroft said the drugmaker was increasing its guidance for marketing, selling and administrative expenses to reflect additional DTC spend. In an investor note, Evercore ISI analyst Mark Schoenebaum played down the possibility of a significant commercial investment, however, saying that the company has already indicated that it believes it is appropriately commercialized for upcoming indication expansions. The drug maker kicked off the DTC campaign, Longer Life, for Opdivo in late September. The advertisement showed the benefits of Opdivo as light cast on buildings, showcasing the drug's benefits, like survival advantage compared to chemotherapy. It's one of only a few cancer drugs to be advertised in this format. BMS CEO Giovanni Caforio has defended the use of direct-to-consumer advertising for a drug only approved for the second-line setting, saying, “there is pessimism for many patients...and a number of patients — particularly in the second-line — are not being treated as effectively as they should [be].” Opdivo saw sales of $704 million for the first quarter of 2015, up 48% from last quarter, beating analyst consensus estimates of $587 million. The DTC campaign launched during the company's fourth quarter of 2015.