Prices matter to customers. Donna Scrivens*, a 39-year-old deli owner living with Multiple Sclerosis, knows this as well as anyone does. Last August, when Scrivens was forced to raise prices on her ever-popular breakfast egg sandwiches, customers turned to alternatives. “Even some of the regulars stopped coming. People notice, and they have other options.”
So why isn’t this also true for big pharma?
As a consultant to pharmaceutical companies for three years, I talked to people afflicted with disease – like Donna – about affordability of their treatments. For some of the newest treatments on the market, drug prices, and subsequently patient costs, have reached unsustainably high levels.
There is no denying that drug development has improved the lives of patients. “Rational drug design”, the process of developing medications based on the identification of a specific biological target, has produced promising new medications. For instance, Gleevec (imatinib) is a treatment for Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). In contrast to many chemotherapy agents which have a relatively non-specific impact on rapidly-dividing cancer cell and on the body’s healthy cells, Gleevec targets the disease itself. Drugs like Gleevec have significantly prolonged the lives of patients afflicted with diseases once thought to be deadly and incurable.
But a drug is useless if people can’t afford it. Particularly in the last ten years, representatives of the pharmaceutical industry have provided a
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most powerful and greedy industries in our country, with a goal to make as large a profit as possible, at the expense of the sick.
The rise in drug prices is causing the public to ask why this is so and why there isn’t anything being done, or what the reason could be for sky high prices. Some of the reasons include pharmaceutical companies setting their drug prices
"In the past two decades or so, health care has been commercialized as never before, and professionalism in medicine seems to be giving way to entrepreneurialism," commented Arnold S. Relman, professor of medicine and social medicine at Harvard Medical School (Wekesser 66). This statement may have a great deal of bearing on reality. The tangled knot of insurers, physicians, drug companies, and hospitals that we call our health system are not as unselfish and focused on the patients' needs as people would like to think. Pharmaceutical companies are particularly ruthless, many of them spending millions of dollars per year to convince doctors to prescribe their drugs and to convince consumers that their specific brand of drug is needed in
This topic is important because I stated before there are other human beings out there that are dying and instead of getting the treatment they need they are forced to live with the disease until they die, and pharmaceutical companies are now charging an arm and a leg. Take the medication Daraprim, a medication that is given to AIDs patients it used to cost a dollar a pill something that most individuals could pay, that was until 2010 when the company CorePharma bought the rights and started charging 13.50 a pill. (CNN Money) This amount is still semi reasonable for individuals in America, while those in Africa well if they couldn’t pay for it before then they certainly won’t be able to buy it now. (CNN Money) CorePharma was once lead by Martin Shkreli the man who is now awaiting sentencing because he was charged with fraud and conspiracy (Business Insider). This same man raised the medication again from thirteen dollars and fifteen cents up to seven hundred fifty dollars a pill, that is a five-hundred percent increase. (CNN Money). They then dropped the price in half so now pill costs
Many experts in healthcare economics point out that chronic medical conditions are directly associated with higher costs (G., 2010). This association is mainly attributed to the high usage of all types of care (Kongstvedt, 2013). Reports show that the number of people suffering with chronic conditions is radically rising and forecasts suggest that the number of American’s with one or more chronic conditions will continue to grow by an estimated 37% between 2000 and 2030 (G., 2010). It is in our patient’s main interest to shift our current focus from treatment for acute conditions to target a better utilization of the recorded 78% of health spending devoted to people with chronic conditions. The new strategic approach is one of developing quality medical care for people with chronic conditions which require ongoing care and care management to improve their health status (Kongstvedt, 2013).
Commercialized on TV as the only solution to our numerous problems, Big Pharma preys on people who struggle through life. Although seemingly meant to heal, pharmaceutical drugs have destroyed countless American lives instead because gullible patients rush to their doctor demanding prescriptions. Want to lose weight? Give me a pill. Want more intense sexual encounters? I need a pill. Want to grow longer, shinier hair? Hey, I’ll just pop a pill. Although some medical conditions do require medication, not every case of discomfort should be treated with highly addictive prescription meds nor should those drugs be trafficked via commercials that target a hypochondriacal nation of couch potatoes too lazy to put forth the time and effort to prevent disease. Instead, far too many Americans simply find a quick fix at their local pharmacy. These prescriptions lead to addiction and in the end death. Therefore, if I could take away any one invention from mankind it would be the crass commercialization of pharmaceuticals.
On the same level from a patient’s perspective, providers are even challenged with increased costs. Even though insurance is becoming more affordable the money, unfortunately has to be recovered utilizing other
Annually, the US spends $300 billion dollars on pharmaceutical drugs. This is due to the over-diagnosing of certain conditions. Everyday, Americans are exposed to an enormous amount of advertisements for medications of all kinds. For example, 1 in 10 Americans are taking
We in America tend to take medications for almost any problem we have, from headaches to gastrointestinal pain, to more serious chronic disorders such as depression and attention deficit disorder. While many of the uses of such medications may be necessary and legitimate, many are not, and due to this fact, many people become dependent on medications, mentally, and or physically. This problem is not simply the fault of the individual; in fact, the blame can also be placed upon the medical community, and the pharmaceutical companies who produce the drugs. How often can one turn on the television to see advertisements for Claritin, Aspirin, Pepto-Bismol, or even Zoloft or Ritalin? The pharmaceutical industry is motivated by monetary
In the beginning of last year my twelve year old sister was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, which is the same concept as Crohn's. Every six weeks she has to go into the hospital to get an IV drip of the chemo drug Remicade or as all the nurses call it “Liquid gold.” They call it that because every dose that the patient gets is roughly $10,000. Each and every person all have a different view on the topic, from what the problem actually is, what is causing the high rise is pharmaceutical drugs and what the right solution would be. What we do know is this is becoming a colossal issue in today's world. It mostly is seen in the United States, where there are no laws against a free market for drug pricing; or in other words there are no rules about how to price prescription drugs. The prices of prescription drugs are rising at an very alarming rate, due to the fact that there are a lot of drug shortages and the money the companies spend on making the drug are so high. There are many different solutions to help fix the issue it all depends on what your stance is on
For patients with chronic conditions, costs, even with insurance, can add up very quickly with numerous doctor’s visits, emergency room visits, and hospital admissions. The CDC (2016), states, “Treating people with chronic diseases accounts for 86% of the nation’s health care costs” (Center of Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). Despite the amount of time and money spent preventing and treating
As such, a subset of our patient population has no other option than to use medication that is less than ideal, leading to worse outcomes. To shift the balance in our healthcare ecosystem, cost must be incurred at some level. In financial terms, this is an investment period in which our system can refocus the business model to address care deficits in patient sub-populations. In humane terms, it simply means that we are going to better provide care to the people who most need
The manufacturers of Sovaldi drug are also of the opinion that government and public officials do not take into account all the benefits mostly economically which emanate from the prescription of the drug. They argue that the high price is very effective in limiting or completely getting done with other hospital expenses that would be incurred in the long run because the drug is effective in the curing of the disease rather than the management of symptoms over the years and, therefore, savings (Charles, 2015). . Most states that try to limit the use of Sovaldi have received lots of lawsuits that analysts say not the definite solution of the underlying problem with Sovaldi being just the first of many highly effective but expensive drugs that are expected in the market due to the ever increasing cases of chronic diseases.
This document outlines the application process for Breakthrough Therapy designation for novel drugs. It then proceeds with outlining the supporting data needed to apply for a Breakthrough Therapy designation for a novel anti-cancer molecule that has evidence of efficacy to treat patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.
There are currently over 133 million American individuals impacted by chronic disease, with one-third of these diseases left untreated. The current methods of treating diseases are often costly and have produced limited success. Changing methods used to treat and control chronic health problems must occur to address the continuing health epidemic (Mogler, Shu, Fox, Goldstein, Victor, Escarce, & Shapiro (2013). Traditionally, treating long-term illnesses implemented treatments that considered humans as rational beings. However, humans are not rational. They are irrational beings that act impulsively to obtain desired results. Economic behaviorists use this information to develop strategies to influence health care (Nash et al., 2016).