FILE PHOTO: A pharmacy technician at the Amsterdam UMC hospital demonstrates a procedure for mixing and preparing a medicine and distributing it in capsules, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, March 1, 2019. REUTERS/Eva Plevier
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - In a radiation-proof room at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, Emar Thomasa sits behind shielded glass as he carefully measures and mixes lutetium octreotate, an intravenous treatment for certain types of cancer.
The Dutch hospital has been offering it to patients for more than a decade at 16,000 euros ($18,000) for one course of treatments. Drug firm Novartis, which in 2018 acquired rights to sell it in Europe, is asking more than five times that for its proprietary version, Lutathera.
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