Make Bexxar Accessible! Please take a moment to sign this petition.

I have recently been made aware of a situation by a personal friend and fellow survivor that requires my and everyone else's help that is concerned about non-Hodgkin lymphoma and the medications that may put you or a loved one into a long term remission.

Please take a moment to click on the link below and sign the petition.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/bexxar/

Also, if your on Facebook, take a moment to "Like" and join the Supporters of Radioimmunotherapy for non-Hodgkin Lymphoma page and leave your comments.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Supporters-of-Radioimmunotherapy-for-non-Hodgkin-Lymphoma/143127185734905

Thank you in advance to each and everyone of you who sign the petition and join in on the movement to keep the world aware. Now find below the message I received from my friend asking for our help.


From a friend, and fellow NHL survivor :

This is WAY past my bedtime but there’s a reason. Some of you remember the crisis RIT faced at the end of 2007 when CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) threatened to slash payment for both Bexxar and Zevalin and PAL and I were involved in a grassroots effort that help save it. Well, here we are three years later and RIT faces another crisis that will further reduce patient access and have a serious impact on clinical trials. Please read this and I hope you’ll sign another petition (sorry about these petitions lately!). Here’s the deal.

I just learned yesterday that in a letter to health care providers, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Bexxar’s manufacturer, announced its decision to reduce production and availability of Bexxar, effective November 1, 2010, saying that “the infrequent demand for BEXXAR, coupled with its significant production costs, meant that our on-demand service would not be sustainable.” It will still be available, but only on certain limited dates which will obviously have a serious impact on patients and on clinical trials.

The reasons for the “infrequent demand” of Bexxar and Zevalin have been well documented and discussed. However, to my knowledge, no mention has ever been made that GSK shares some responsibility for the underutilization of Bexxar because the company has made no recent effort to market the drug or to educate physicians and patients about the treatment. Spectrum, Zevalin’s manufacturer, has done a much better job. Its 3rd quarter sales increased 64% over the same period last year.

So why should we care about Bexxar? As we all know, Rituxan is almost always combined with chemotherapy and it is frequently used for maintenance, and I have long wondered what might happen if we no longer respond to Rituxan based therapies. In recent interviews with Dr. Mark Kaminski and Dr. Christopher Flowers, both stated that Rituxan-resistant lymphoma cells can be created in the lab. Dr. Kaminski elaborated when I asked him, “Since Rituxan is a component of Zevalin, does anybody really know how effective RIT is if someone becomes refractory….?”

His answer: “…this is not a direct comparative trial, but just looking at the data side by side – the number of complete responders to Bexxar was more than double that of those to Zevalin in this particular situation, i.e., Rituximab refractory patients. And it might be because Bexxar uses a different antibody, a different CD-20 than Zevalin. Zevalin is essentially radiolabeled Rituxan. Bexxar is binding to a different part of the protein and it evokes a different immunological response than what Rituxan does. And so to me, it makes more sense to try a different antibody with radioimmunotherapy than repeating but just adding a little radiation with Zevalin in those particular instances.”

In other words, because the antibody in Bexxar is different and attaches to a different part of CD20 than Rituxan, Bexxar may work when Rituxan based therapies don’t – and we have to remember that Rituxan is part of Zevalin. Therefore, if we lose Bexxar, we lose an option – and I don’t think anybody is willing to give up any one of our options.

Where does Bexxar really stand? Supposedly, GSK’s decision to limit production is final, although there may be a chance the company will reconsider. A group of lymphoma specialists, led by Dr. Kaminski, is banding together to present scientific evidence to the company’s top management in hopes of convincing the company to change its mind. After a whirlwind of strategizing, this group of doctors is our best hope and I believe that it’s appropriate to let them take the lead, especially since they already have access to GSK and its ear. I think it would only interfere if lots of people start bombarding – plus we don’t really know who to bombard.

However, to supplement the docs’ argument, we patients/survivors/friends/family members can ask GSK to keep Bexxar accessible by signing a petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/bexxar/ which was created by Supporters of Radioimmunotherapy for non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (me). The docs will deliver the petition to GSK. If you have questions about it, let me know. Also, although the petition site’s goal says 500, the real goal is get 1,000 signatures in the next week if that’s even remotely possible. So I hope you’ll sign and share with family and friends – every signature will count. Same with the Supporters FB page – it needs to rack up friends fast so I hope you’ll like and share: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Supporters-of-Radioimmunotherapy-for-non-Hodgkin-Lymphoma/143127185734905


So as you can see this is very important. And to close with a couple of quotes from GlaxoSmithKline USA, which contradict's this move to limit production of Bexxar!


"GSK Oncology is dedicated to producing innovations in cancer that will make profound differences in the lives of patients. Through GSK’s revolutionary ‘bench to bedside’ approach, we are transforming the way treatments are discovered and developed, resulting in one of the most robust pipelines in the oncology sector. Our worldwide research in oncology includes collaborations with more than 160 cancer centers. GSK is closing in on cancer from all sides with a new generation of patient focused cancer treatments in prevention, supportive care, chemotherapy, and targeted therapies."

"GlaxoSmithKline – one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies – is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better, and live longer. For further information please visit www.gsk.com."

Just not seeing the commitment here on your part GSK! Stop this action to limit the production of Bexxar now!