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I've just been reading Dr West's sobering post on how the cost of certain new cancer drugs, such as crizotinib and Yervoy, could put them beyond the reach of some patients who might benefit from them:
http://cancergrace.org/cancer-101/2012/07/18/cancer-care-costs/#more-21…
Just interested to hear the reactions of others? (With my Stone Age software, I find the Comments section can be a bit unwieldy.)
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Reply # - July 19, 2012, 08:35 PM
Reply To: Dr West's post on cost of new cancer treatments
Yes, I'm interested in learning whether costs of treatments have been a barrier for people, whether because they bore those costs personally (or couldn't do that) or couldn't get access within their health care system at all because of costs.
Thinking that there are treatments out there that could be helpful but are limited for practical rather than biological reasons is especially frustrating. I don't like not having better answers for many cancer patients, but it's better than having them but not being able to provide them.
-Dr. West
Reply # - July 20, 2012, 01:50 AM
Reply To: Dr West's post on cost of new cancer treatments
It is interesting for me even though - perhaps because - I live under a completely different system (UK), where cost and efficacy are explicitly taken into account in deciding which drugs should be paid for by the NHS. Crizotinib is going to pose quite a challenge, partly because of the obvious difference it makes to people's lives, and partly because it is so expensive.
One question I wanted to ask was, will the price of this and similar drugs come down when the patent expires? Has that happened already with longstanding chemotherapy drugs? We had an interesting question recently from someone in India about the generic version of erlotinib that is available there, which Roche has fought against tenaciously.
There have also been a number of inquiries from people outside the US (Turkey and Jordan are the countries I remember) who know they have the ALK but cannot possibly afford the crizotinib without help from Pfizer or elsewhere. So the inequalities are global as well as national.
Reply # - July 22, 2012, 11:57 AM
Reply To: Dr West's post on cost of new cancer treatments
When D was prescribed tarceva I was taken by surprise that it wouldn't be paid as chemo is paid.
FYI, in the US chemo is paid through the part of insurance that funnels through the doctor visit/care center (is that right?) and targeted drugs that come in pill form are funneled through prescription drug portion of our insurance plans. The 2 have different payment systems.
I was quite busy for a few days trying to figure out how we would pay the prescription maximum of several thousand dollars. Genetech the makers of tarceva help with that but you must look. The system is broken. It cost less to take tarceva than it did to get chemo. But according to our bills that just wasn't the case.
BTW I split the 2 conversations so we can have both without the confusion. It's in the same forum entitled Healthcare on a personal level.