Women Fighting for Herceptin

Women Fighting for Herceptin is a U.K-based group campaigning for the approval and public funding of Roche's breast cancer drug Herceptin.

Pat Thomas writes in The Ecologist that the breast cancer drug Herceptin "prolongs a few lives for an average of four months at a cost of £400,000 per life extended, and for the majority of women for whom it does not work there is an increased risk of severe heart damage and the spread of their cancer to the central nervous system." Yet, the British press has declared it a "miracle cure," thanks to savvy public relations efforts.

Sarah Boseley in The Guardian reported that on behalf of drugmaker Roche, a Ketchum employee called reporter and cancer patient Lisa Jardine, offering her "the chance to ... do paid talks at Roche seminars and ... help find[ing] funding for her own use of Herceptin. ... 'She said she would make it worth my while,'" Jardine said. An employee at another of Roche's PR firms, Porter Novelli, volunteered her services to the group Women Fighting for Herceptin. The group successfully promoted many "unhappy women who couldn't get their hands on the drug, [who were] willing to tell their stories to TV, radio and the newspapers."

Contact Details
Web: http://www.fightingforherceptin.org.uk/

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * Patient Groups
 * Patient Groups/UK