Zometa

You can always ask for slowing down the IV if it helps you. The 15 minutes is a lower limit.

I get 4mg. This is maddening, that they don't know what the heck they are doing! It's like we have to navigate all this on our own, and fight being our own advocates. Thank God for these boards. 

Dear ThisIsMe,

If you were in USA, I'd have said well geee the prices are inflated BECAUSE of the insurance!

Dear Lauren,

I have heard you can get it for approx $200 per infusion.

Maybe you can sign up for SWOG 0307?

OMG, $5200!!! Mine was $600, which included the home nurse for the infusion.

Just so I was clear - Zometa 4mg costs $200 when ordered from Canadian online pharmacies. I was told this by a doc who said she would not hesitate in ordering online if paying for herself.

I pay $600 upfront for my Zometa infusion. I then fax my receipt to Novartis and they reimburse me $300. I have my 4th infusion in January.......cant believe I only have 2 left! January 2011 I'll be done...

  Im in Canada too.

I have Zometa/Novartis's phone number.

Basically, they decide by your income. If you make under a certain amount per year, you qualify. I dont know what the cut off is though.

I had to fax them my income tax T4 slip and my oncs referal for Zometa and they approved it pretty quickly.

So, I pay upfront, $600.00. And fax them my receipt. They then mail me a check for reimbursing me half of the amount.

$200 is a crazy low price.  I shopped around a bit and found it was $600-$800 per 4mg dose here in Canada.  $200 sounds fishy but who knows.  I'm not aware of a generic, which is where Canadian drugs are often a savings.

Everyminute - I am in the SWOG bisphosphonate study.  It was recently revised and instead of three options there are only 2 drugs.  So there would be a 50/50 chance that you would get Zometa on this study.  My sources have said that there is some data to support starting Zometa while on Taxol...I suppose there must be individual circumstances but perhaps you could call the study folks and ask the questions.  I know everyone hates to question there providers decisions, but if you don't advocate for you, who will?

I seem to have spread some misinformation on pricing for bisphosphonate ordered from Canadian online cos.

As others have mentioned, zometa 4mg would cost $650+ from Canada. 16 doses needed per the SWOG 0307 trial would cost a total of $10,400.

Clodronate is however available for $200+ per month's supply. 36 month's supply needed per SWOG 0307 trial would cost a total of $7,200.

This is just the cost of the drugs. Does not include doctor's visits, monitoring, testing etc. 

Neither is cheap of course but for some this may be a viable option.

unklez,   Maybe they are grossly overcharging at my onco's office, but I just looked on an ins claim and they are charging $2,240 for the zometa and that is not including the process of administering it which they break down , charge you for each little tube and IV, etc and that adds on $100s more.  I noted that the insurance is paying $850 so that must be allowed cost. 

I will be seeing my onc on Dec 20 for followup after finishing  rads and to start Zometa infusions

Dear SpringTime,

They are giving 16 doses of Zometa 4mg each over 3 years under SWOG 0307. They give 4 doses for Osteo.

I paid over $700 Cdn for the Zometa. The drug company paid for the nurse to come over to my house to do the infusion and they reimbursed me 50% of the cost of the drug.  She was very nice. I'll get it 2x a year. Right now the government won't pay unless it's administered in a hospital and the hospital won't administer it because they have no budget for it. I was very surprised that my extended health care insurance wouldn't cover it at all but it's not part of the plan that my employer has.