Cyramza

The pharmaceutical business requires a lot of precision and carefulness to make sure that there are no ethical violations when creating this drug. Eli Lilly is the company that produces and creates this drug and according to their website they take extensive steps to ensure all the parts of their drug making process is as ethical as possibly, without of course, hampering the results. Each step of the process is extensive and takes as many as 2-10 years for each step depending on what is required. Even after manufacturing and distributing the product, Lilly conducts post-market monitoring so they can check up on the drug to make sure that it is still effect and nothing has gone wrong. Beyond their processes that they implement for the making of their drugs, they also ensure that the workers workings for Lilly receive the best treatment and are not maltreated. They offer full medical health care package for all of their patients which involve medical, mental and emotional care (Eli Lilly and Company). They believe that their patients should be treated with the same regard as the patients they are making the medicine for. Their health care package is mostly the same (with a few minor differences) for all areas of work in Eli Lilly, from packagers to business executives. They are listed in the Top 100 places to work for 2012 and they have one numerous awards for their ethical behavior. This company tries its hardest to mach sure that nobody is harmed in any way in this business and that all the workers are treated equally.(Eli Lilly and Company)

In addition to their ethical behavior with humans, they are always ranked top in the world for best ethical treatment of animals. As with all scientific discoveries and developments, animals are needed to perform test the product and study the effects. However, at Eli Lilly, they try to treat the animals an best they can and use as minimal animal trials as needed. Their company rules state that all employees must comply with the state or national laws in addition to their animal ethics, which is some cases are more strict than the federal laws. Eli Lilly is accredited by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care and all animal facilities are subject to random check ups and evaluations. They go to extreme measures to ensure the safety and ethical treatment of these animals and this company is not like others who might sacrifice animal (and/or human) standards to make more money. (Eli Lilly and Company)

Cyramza

Benefits

One obvious benefit from this drug is that the patients who have used Cyramza live an average 5.2 months longer than those not on Cyramza. This drug has been prove to extend patients lives and it is a new option for patient when all other treatment has failed.

Any new effective cancer drug is good, but Cyramza is different because it offers so many possibilities. This is the first every angiogenesis inhibitor drug to ever be approved by the FDA and used as treatment. This is going to pave the way for many new similar drugs that use the angiogenesis inhibitors and this could be just what researchers need to continue looking for new effect cures to cancer.

Benefits and Limitations

Stomach Cancer

How does Cyramza work?

Stomach cancer is one of the leading types of cancer, especially in developing countries, resulting in death in half of reported cases. This is fourth most common type of cancer; it is the 3rd leading cause of cancer death in men and 5th most common cancer death in women.Usual treatment used for this type of cancer are chemotherapy, surgery, biological therapies (I.e the changing of the signals of the cells) and even more progressive treatment of creating a new stomach. But never before in any type of cancer has an angiogeneis inhibitor been used to fight cancer. This research and new drug type can pave the road for more cancer research and help develop a cure for all cancers. (Global Cancer Facts & Figures)

Cyramza, generically known as ramucirumab, is the first ever drug that is used on advanced stomach cancer patients whom have failed treatment with chemotherapy. It is one of the first drugs to use angiogenesis inhibitors as it’s method of treatment. Angiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels; and this drug cuts off the life-giving blood supply to the tumor, causing the spread of the cancer to cease and the tumor to slowly weaken. For angiogenesis to happen, cells have to give off chemical signals to stimulate molecules. The molecules have to bond to create the new blood vessels and tumors can give off chemical signals to start angiogenesis or stimulate the nearby normal cells to produce the signals. This drug bonds to the molecules that bind to the cells, and prohibits the growth molecule to attach to the cell and stimulate angiogenesis. (National Cancer Institute)

Limitations

Cyramza is a great new cancer drug that holds many capabilities, but even so this drug has many limitations as well.

Even though this drug has some benefits, this also has many limitations. The cost is expensive and the side effects are very risking. For Cyramza to work, patients need to receive Cyramza every 2 weeks intravenously (through the vein directly)(FDA). Monthly this can cost between $2,000-$9,000 depending on the weight of the patient, and most health insurance require the patient to pay minimum a quarter of the cost (FDA). This is a limitation because many people cannot afford these prices and if they do choose to get this treatment, this will put most families in debt.

Another limitation to Cyramza are the side effects that can happen when this drug is taken. According to the FDA when taking Cyramza, there was an increase risk of hemorrhages, sometimes even fatal.

Other side effects include:

-severe bleeding

-Hypertensions (increased blood pressure)

-Gastrointestinal perforation (holes in the gastrointestinal cavity)

-Impaired wound healing (*hampers heal time)

These side affects could outweigh the positive of this drug because there are so many health risks involved when taking these drug. (FDA)

*Possibly, Cyramza not yet tested on patients with healing wounds.

What is Cyramza?

Cyramza is a new angiogenesis inhibitor drug that has just been approved by the FDA to treat Stomach cancer. Angiogenesis inhibitors are drugs that cut off the blood supply to the tumor by attacking the surrounding blood vessels (Jacobson).

AOI

Although Cyramza has pros and cons regarding the scientific aspect of the drug, it also has social and ethical impacts as well. Just because this drug is beneficial because it saves lives, does not mean that beyond the surface factors nothing else is effected.

History of Cyramza

Social

Although Cyramza is a relatively new drug, the concept of using Angiogenesis inhibitors to treat cancerous tumors is not. Researcher Judah Folkman was a pioneer in this type of cancer research and demonstrated that angiogenesis inhibitors starved the tumors in mice of blood. At the time, many other scientists also thought that this was going to be the cure to cancer, but as time as proven, this prediction fell short. Even though it was not what scientists and doctors had hoped for, it still has paved the way for many scientific discoveries and some still believe that this hold the key for cancer to be cured. (Jacobson)

Works Cited

"Angiogenesis Inhibitors." National Cancer Institute. NIH, n.d. Web. 02 June 2014. <http://www.cancer.gov/ cancertopics/factsheet/Therapy/angiogenesis-inhibitors>.

"Cancer." WHO. WHO, Feb. 2014. Web. 02 June 2014. <http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs297/en/>.

"Eli Lilly and Company." Eli Lilly and Company. Eli Lilly and Company, n.d. Web. 02 June 2014. <http://www.lilly.com/Pages/Home.aspx>.

FD. CYRAMZA LABEL (n.d.): n. pag. FDA. Web. 2 June 2014. <http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2014/125477lbl.pdf>.

FDA. CYRAMZA LABEL (n.d.): n. pag. FDA. Web. 2 June 2014. <http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2014/125477lbl.pdf>.

"Global Cancer Facts & Figures." Global Cancer (n.d.): 3+. Cancer.org. American Cancer Society. Web. 2 June 2014. <http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@epidemiologysurveilance/documents/document/acspc-027766.pdf>.

Jacobson, Roni. "New Drug for Stomach Cancer Starves Tumors of Blood." Scientific American Global RSS. Scientific American, 29 Apr. 2014. Web. 02 June 2014. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-drug-for-stomach-cancer-starves-tumors-of-blood/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ScientificAmerican-News+%28Content%3A+News%29>.

Robin, Rabin C. "Chemo Costs In U.S. Driven Higher By Shift To Hospital Outpatient Facilities - WebMD." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 02 June 2014. <http://www.webmd.com/health-insurance/20140506/chemo-costs-in-us-driven-higher-by-shift-to-hospital-outpatient-facilities>.

"Stomach Cancer Research." : Cancer Research UK : CancerHelp UK. Cancer Research UK, n.d. Web. 02 June 2014. <http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-help/type/stomach-cancer/treatment/whats-new-in-stomach-cancer-research#cause>.

As mentioned before Cyramza is an expensive drug that costs thousands a month. This is not beneficial to the patient and causes many problems for the patients and the patient’s loved ones. These patients will not just be paying for cyramza itself, they will be paying for the hospital room, extra medicine and, depending on the patient, additional chemotherapy to supplement the Cyramza. Chemotherapy can range from $5,000-$10,000 (annually) and some chemotherapy has been reported at $30,000 (Rabin). This additional cost of cyramza will cause serious issue in most of the patient’s lives and leave the families in debt after the patient passes. Most people do not have health insurance and are forced to pay most if not all of the price of the treatment, leaving many people to drop out of treatment or go into serious debt. (Rabin)

Ethical

Animal Ethics