FDL - Are You Or Someone You Know Paying $50,000 A Year For Drugs?

[slipslidingaway]

Finally ... maybe there will be some discussion of the data exclusivity amendment that is in both the House and Senate bills.

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/10/27/are-you-or-... /

"The public option has received the lion’s share of attention in the health care debate, but there is an equally important one relating to generic drugs that could mean the lifesaving drugs of the future remain too expensive for all but the wealthy.

Biologics are drugs made from living organisms, and they are considered the miracle drugs of the future. They are the new “blockbuster” drugs for the pharmaceutical industry. Herceptin, for breast cancer, costs $48,000 a year, and many insurance companies won’t cover it — or people quickly hit their limits and must pay for it out-of-pocket or go without.

Embrel and Remicade, for rheumitoid arthritis, Rituxan, for Non-Hodgkin’s lymphpoma, Avasta, for metastatic colorectal cancer, Lantus, for diabetes, and Avonex, for multiple sclerosis, are just a few of these biologics. When I was on chemotheraphy, I took Neulasta to boost my white blood cell count and keep my immune system going...

...But young medical and public health students across the country feel their hands are being tied as healers of the future, and they are coming out in protest. Eric Butter, a biostatistics major at UNC, led one of many such protests around the country last week.

“It is a really important issue that might not affect us now, but 10 years down the road it will be huge,” Butter said..."