Optivo: the one dose.

• Optivo: Trade name
• Nivolumab: general name.

This is one dose of 24ml; 2x10ml + 2 x 2ml. It is a fixed dose of any type of cancers, an oncology pharmacologist said, adding that it was variant dose but it was changed to a fixed dose of 24 ml.

Why this is interesting?

1. Because this is the Nobel Prize of this year; It is a medication of PD1 inhibitor (Immunotherapy); Professor Honjo received a Nobel Prize this year due to finding of this PD1 inhibitor.
2. This is a super-expensive drugs. It is now about 3,000USD per one dose in Japan. This is supposed to give one dose per 2 weeks, meaning 6,000USD per month. Thus it would be roughly 72,000USD per year. But it is reduced by 1/4 in price; it was previously 300,000USD per year. The price was set by the invented company and people gets angry with this high price.
3. It works for lung cancers and melanoma, for which almost no drugs work previously. thus the use of this drugs becomes common and common. It is already routine in Japan.
4. The pressure to reduce the price hits the company. The Ministry of health and drugs sets the price even lower. It will become 700USD per one dose soon, a pharmacist told me. But now the drug company gets mad about it since the company invested a lot of money for the invention and drug tests. It is a private company and the management is responsible for the company's profit. Actually the share price of the company elevated when the development of the drug had been successful.