As cancer patients in England has become the first in the world to benefit from a jab that can be administered in seven minutes, doctors in India have elicited mixed response with some saying that the seven minutes jab is just about a route and not the treatment outcome. Nevertheless, all agreed that the development brings renewed hope and accessibility to patients battling with cancer.
Dr Prashant Mehta, Professor in the Department of Medical Oncology/Hemato-oncology and Bone marrow transplantation at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Faridabad explained that this modified formulation of an existing immunotherapy drug , Atezolizumab (Tecentriq, ROCHE ) can be administered over 7 minutes instead of the usual 30-60 minutes required to administer the intravenous formulation making it suitable for outpatient administration. “Although this may be good news for some patients, the overall access to immunotherapy drugs in India is very poor (probably less than 3 %) due to the high cost.
The subcutaneous product will make maintenance treatment simpler but will not make much of a difference during the initial 4-6 cycles when the drug is given alongside intravenous chemotherapy.
“Also, Tecentriq as of now is a less commonly used immunotherapy drug, with Merck’s Keytruda and BMS Opdyta having a much higher usage because of broader set of indications, evidence and guidelines,” emphasized Dr Mehta. Dr Parveen Jain, Senior Consultant, HOD - Oncology, Aakash Healthcare was of the opinion that the introduction of the seven-minute jab is “a game changer for thousands of cancer patients because the traditional intravenous method of administering the drug can be challenging for many patients due to difficulties in accessing veins in addition to being time taking.”
Since, this innovative under-the-skin injection method expedites and simplifies the process taking only seven minutes, it brings renewed hope and accessibility to patients battling with cancer, he said. “This also means that now more people can access treatment for cancer without the hassles of long and painful IV sessions,” Dr Jain said.
But Dr Praveen Bansal, Director- Medical Oncology, Asian Hospital, Faridabad did not seem much impressed as he said, “well there is some confusion about this which I want to clarify.
The news is about a drug, Atezolizumab, which is also known by the name Tecentriq. We have been using this drug for years in India in the treatment of cancers such as bladder, breast and Lung.
“This is a good drug which works by boosting a patient’s immune system to fight the cancer cells and we get good results out of it.
“However, one must understand that the new development has nothing to do with this treatment or the outcome of the treatment. “It is only about the way this drug is to be administered to the patient. Earlier we were doing it by the intravenous method, but this new method would make it possible to administer this drug through an ‘under the skin’ injection,” he added.