Each vial of Velcade contains 1.3 milligram more medication than the average cancer patient needs. This disparity between vial size and patient dosage means hospitals will waste about 27 to 30 percent of the Velcade they purchase. They’ll spend $308 million on leftover Velcade that they never use.
I reached out to Takeda, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures Velcade, and spokesperson Amy Atwood told me the vial size was developed in coordination with the Food and Drug Administration.
“Takeda worked closely with the FDA to establish the VELCADE vial size of 3.5 mg to ensure that one vial of VELCADE would provide an adequate amount of the drug for a patient of almost any size,” she wrote in an email.
But there is a solution that doesn’t create nearly as much waste, and allows for accurate dosing.