Since September 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved 73 new drugs fit for the market (20 of which were aimed at treating cancer). Cancer cases are rising everyday and so is the cost of treatment. Already estimated at approximately $107 billion in 2015, cancer-drug sales are expected to rise to $150 billion over the 4 years.
Among the 20 new cancer drugs to be released are Keytruda, Lenvima, Unituxin and Yondelis. All 20 of these cancer treating drugs, with the exception of Yondelis, cost more than $104,000 per patient per year. This has not just an impact on the cancer patient, but on insurers as well. But, the market for producing cancer fighting treatments is not exactly full of competition, so pharmaceuticals are able to get away with charging whatever they want.
The pharmaceutical companies do try and justify the costs by implying that making convenient at-home cancer treatments comes with an increased price. Another of their reasons for the hefty price tag of these new drugs are that they are now tailoring them to provide a more targeted treatment. The price of prescriptions in the U.S is already higher than many places in the world, but that is largely down the rise in research and development costs, marketing costs, legal fees in defending intellectual property, the high standards of living in the U.S. and no nationwide healthcare plan.
But, despite the rising costs, these treatments are very effective and very much needed. One of the recent cancer fighting drugs to be approved is Keytruda and although it is still early days, the results from patients receiving this treatment are very positive indeed, with around 40% of patients surviving after their third year of being diagnosed. Previously, before the introduction of Keytruda, most metastatic melanoma patients failed to make it past the first year.
There have been suggestions as to how to bring the cost of treatments down, including negotiating rates for Medicare, allowing the importation of some of these drugs, or implementing a value-based payment model where the value of the drug would be determined by the quality and overall survival rates of users, and reimbursements would be made to the manufactures. But, the difficulty in doing this is – how do you put a financial value on the cost of prolonging a life?
The pharmaceutical market is not likely to change overnight, and maybe none of these suggestions will actually come to light, but it is clear that if we do want to continue finding cures and treatments for diseases such as cancer, then we still have a long financial strain ahead of us.
Story Via; The Motley Fool
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