ROCHE en guerra...de precios.

Roche’s lower price tag 
for its targeted cancer therapy 
Rozlytrek could – intentionally or not – 
hit one of Bayer’s big hopes hard.



Roche has proven itself a canny pricing strategist in recent years during the launches of Ocrevus and Hemlibra. And now, by setting the price for its targeted cancer therapy, Rozlytrek, at $17,000 per month, the Swiss group could have Bayer looking over its shoulder.

Bayer has a similar, but slightly different, targeted drug in Vitrakvi, but it costs nearly twice as much, $33,000 per month. Roche might not be setting out to destroy Vitrakvi – it has other reasons for its pricing decision – but the end result could end up being much the same.

Rozlytrek just got US FDA approval for NTRK fusion cancers, regardless of the tumour type – the same population in which Vitrakvi received the nod last November (Bayer wants top dollar for larotrectinib, 27 November 2018).

But Rozlytrek, which Roche gained via its $1.7bn purchase of Ignyta, also got the go-ahead in Ros1-positive non-small cell lung cancer, and it is here that Roche has so far focused its attention.

So perhaps it is no wonder that Rozlytrek’s price tag is more in line with Pfizer’s Xalkori, which had previously been the only approved therapy for NSCLC patients with Ros1 mutations; these occur in around 1-2% of cases.

However, this does not help Bayer. The company took on full rights to Vitrakvi just after Lilly closed its purchase of the product’s originator, Loxo Oncology, and sorely needs it to be a success. The drug is currently forecast to bring in $688m in 2024, according to EvaluatePharma sellside consensus, making it Bayer’s sixth biggest product that year and its most important recent launch. If anything could dent this estimate it would be a price war with one of oncology’s top players.(Ver)