This drug costs $84,000. And there’s nothing the US health-care system can do to stop it.

[babylonsister]

This drug costs $84,000
And there’s nothing the US health-care system can do to stop it.
by Sarah Kliff on December 2, 2014

snip


So Mason lived with his Hepatitis C, the hair loss, the weight loss, the walker, and the falls, until this past February. That's when his doctor at the Whitman Walker Clinic in Washington, DC, asked if he wanted to try a new Hepatitis C drug called Sovaldi. It had just come on the market a few months earlier. In initial trials, Sovaldi used with another medication cured at least 94 percent of Hepatitis C cases during a 12-week treatment course.

Treatment would not be invasive like a liver transplant. He would just need to take Sovaldi and one other medication once a day for three months. Mason agreed.

Sovaldi worked better than Mason had hoped. His hair began to grow back. Within three weeks of finishing treatment, he gave up his walker — and his Hepatitis C was gone. "I keep thinking it's going to come back," Mason said. "But each time they test me, it's undetectable."

What Mason didn't know: the pills he took typically cost $1,000 each. His entire course of treatment has a an $84,000 sticker price that his health insurer, public assistance programs, and the drug manufacturer itself all chipped in to cover.

Mason didn't know that the yellow pill he took daily, and its price, were the subject of a massive fight in the healthcare system and one of the biggest policy debates of the year.

more...

http://www.vox.com/2014/12/2/7282833/sovaldi-cost

[CurtEastPoint]

1. We get screwed over and over again. "Best healthcare" my ass.

[yeoman6987]

5. Best health care? Yes! Free? No!

[ForgoTheConsequence]

6. Depends how you define "best".

Best and most advanced toys? yes. Best outcomes? No.

[Initech]

9. Best health care system if you can afford it.

[riversedge]

2. Mason seems willing to give it to the young instead of him...

But it should not be a I vs YOU issue.


.....Mason knows that, for him, Sovaldi was incredible. But he also has friends, at an HIV support group he attends in Washington, who can't access the drug because of the price. They don't have health insurance coverage and it's just too expensive.

"My experience is I feel much better and I'm much happier having taken the medication," Mason said. "But let's put it this way: I'm 73. I'm grateful to be alive now. But if there was some young child who could have used this money to keep them alive, I think it would have been better to spend the money on them."

[babylonsister]

4. Agreed. It should be

affordable for all. I wonder realistically what it costs to make one pill?

[Nye Bevan]

8. The actual cost of manufacturing each pill is probably fairly low.

The issue is, what did it cost to invent, test, and bring this medication to market? Yes, we could pass a law that no medicine is allowed to be sold for (say) more than $50 per pill, but then you could ask whether in the presence of such a law this medicine would have been developed at all.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

12. this is not a real question

when i was young we could go to the moon - college in california was free

it is just a matter of priorities - fund the universities - let them reap the windfalls

[zeemike]

13. How about public funding the R&D?

It would take a tiny fraction of the military budget...scrap that latest fighter plane would cover it nicely...then make it available to all no matter their income.

But that sounds like socialism and it is, and the corporatist would scream bloody murder at socialism taking away their profitable business.

[SammyWinstonJack]

18. I thought the public already funded the R&D that Big Pharma benefited from?

[zeemike]

22. If they did then the public should own it.

[rpannier]

16. Pert of that question should be

How much money/assistance did the manufacturer/researcher get for the research?

Many drugs are developed with the help of public universities and from government financial aid.
My guess is, with the money they'd likely get from the US Government, which they all usually get, they'd still develop it

[Bob_in_VA]

23. Well, what would be the ROI if this drug had a regulated price?

From the CDC website:

How common is acute Hepatitis C in the United States?

In 2009, there were an estimated 16,000 acute Hepatitis C virus infections reported in the United States.

How common is chronic Hepatitis C in the United States?

An estimated 3.2 million persons in the United States have chronic Hepatitis C virus infection. Most people do not know they are infected because they don’t look or feel sick.

How likely is it that acute Hepatitis C will become chronic?

Approximately 75%–85% of people who become infected with Hepatitis C virus develop chronic infection.

Let's see...
84 pills times $50 per pill = $4200 times 12,000 (75% of 16,000) infections = $50,4000,000
So about $50 million to cure the 12,000 people that developed chronic Hepatitis C in 2009.

But wait. There are approximately 3.2 million people with chronic Hepatitis C.
So 3,200,000 times $4200 =$13.44 billion dollars. Gee, do you think that would be enough profit for whatever drug company developed this treatment?
Now, admittedly, once we cure all of the existing cases of chronic Hepatitis C the drug company could only expect a gross profit of $50+ million a year but that should be enough. Oh, and we are only talking about chronic Hepatitis C in the US. Worldwide should provide several multiples of return for the drug company.
And lastly, how much of the R&D for this drug came from the US taxpayer, courtesy of NIH and CDC? If it is like most drugs, at least some of the R&D was paid for by Uncle Sam. But Uncle Sam never asks for any of the R&D funding to be paid back much less demands a cut of the profits.

[WhiteTara]

36. I remember in the dark ages when that was so

that we (Uncle Sam) required give back and the drug co profits reflected that

[pnwmom]

33. Big Pharma is grossly exaggerating the costs of new drug development,

according to Doctors Without Borders.

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/rd-cost-estimates-msf-response-tufts-csdd-study-cost-develop-new-drug

[GeorgeGist]

3. The 'SYSTEM' is capitalism.

Health care has nothing to do with it.

[AgingAmerican]

7. I underwent a six month Hep C treatment in 2011

It cost $99,000. That's $1000 less than we paid for our house in 1992. Yeah....

[Crunchy Frog]

10. Why aren't Dr. Frieden and the CDC on top of this important public health issue?

[on point]

11. Sure there is. Extend Eminent Domain to needed drugs.

Pay a fair return and put it in the public domain. Much cheaper to health care system, country and world

[X_Digger]

14. Lol you only get to try that trick once. Then the drug companies offshore completely.

And they don't bring any actually innovative drug to the US.

Umm, yeah. Unintended consequences. You gots em.

(Of course that's assuming such a silly thing would actually happen- what's the fair market price for a new drug? Oh wait, you didn't realize the government has to actually PAY FOR stuff it seizes via eminent domain? Lol.)

[on point]

35. I think your answer is simplistic and misses the point.

And there are other ways to get around their resistance. Creative thinking required hearer. The corporations are out of control.

[Dustlawyer]

15. There is a treatment for my disease which causes severe pain in legs and feet. I am allergic

to most of the medications that treat this pain and must take heavy narcotics. This is costing me my career and a lot of pain and expense. I have evn had a neural stimulator installed in my spine to help with the pain. The treatment would make me pain free and return me to normal as long as I take a treatment a day for four days and then one every other month for life. The problem is that it is $15,000 per treatment!
They don't R&D for cures, only treatments. The Federal government used to fund a lot of R&D for cures, but budget cuts have hamstrung researchers. We are o e F'ed up country for sure!

[LeftyMom]

19. This is a weird thread on which to be complaining about the lack of cures.

Sovaldi is a cure for a very serious disease.

[Dustlawyer]

24. Yes, and as they discussed, a cure is a very rare occurrence. I will spend much more in medication costs

for my treatments over my lifetime than what this cure costs. Not saying that the price for this drug is reasonable either, but put it in perspective. Pharmaceutical prices are extreme no matter whether it is a cure or a treatment. I could have been more clear on my post to make my point, but this issue is obviously very personal to me. I also have a sister that was diagnosed with Hep C six months ago so I am happy to see this story, but worried about whether she could get it at the same time.
It is extremely frustrating to have so many ignorant Amercans allow our government to sellout to Big Pharma by voting for these corporate shills! End of rant!

[LeftyMom]

25. Depending on which version of the virus she has, interfeuron might do the same thing.

Sovaldi is a shorter treatment and works on everybody (though some versions take a longer course than others) and has less side effects than interfeuron, though both are apparently pretty nasty. And like I posted downthread, other treatments are coming soon and the price will fall.

[WhiteTara]

17. Thanks *co. Here's the reason why

The United States works differently. Federal law bars Medicare, the country's largest insurance plan, from negotiating with drug makers. Once a pharmaceutical company sets its price, the government-run plan that insures 49 million seniors is required to accept it.

[SammyWinstonJack]

20. +1

[truedelphi]

29. Yes, + 1. n/t

[pnwmom]

34. Right. And this is a travesty. n/t

[LeftyMom]

21. A liver transplant runs over half a mil.

There aren't enough fucking livers to go around. Anything that keeps people running on their factory equipment and off of the transplant list is a bargain, before you even consider the quality of life benefits or the reduction or elimination of other medications, etc.

And the reason Sovaldi is so damned expensive is that there are multiple similar drugs well into the pipeline and expected to hit the market in a few years (I've heard 2-5 depending on who you ask) so the window to make money on this one before competitors drive the price down is relatively short. That's fucked up, but it also means that people who are priced out won't have long to wait.

[truedelphi]

30. Isn't it likely that some if not many of those priced out will be dead by then?

America = "We could save you if you were rich, or if the nation had a decent health care program."

[LeftyMom]

31. It's generally a disease that destroys the liver slowly, over decades. So no.

And public health programs in many cases are covering it.

[truedelphi]

32. What you are stating is a bit misleading.

People who do not know they have the disease can live for years without dealing with it, and even decades, but if you are diagnosed due to symptoms of fatigue, jaundice etc, then you are likely to be told that unless the disease is treated, or you get the liver replacement, that you only have months to live.


http://www.healthline.com/health-news/aging-life-with-hepatitis-c-about-to-get-easier-111413
From the article above: So since hepatitis C rarely presents any symptoms until it begins to destroy the liver, Martinez’s mother was for a long time unaware of the infection. She was given six months to live after it was discovered.

[Bombero1956]

26. My daughter had treatments for Dense Deposit Disease

She had treatments with Soliris (Eculizumab) which runs $17,000 per treatment or $500,000 for a full course. If it weren't for the company that makes it and the hospital covering the costs she would never have had the drug.

[Lint Head]

27. I see Drug Pushers in my doctors office every visit.

They walk through the waiting room and take up the time a doctor should be spending with patients. I think the practice of pushing drug brands to physicians should be outlawed. Corporate healthcare is a cruel and immoral joke. A joke that makes billionaires out of people who don't give a rats ass about anyone's health but their own.

[Recursion]

28. Huh. Hep C kills more people globally than AIDS for the past 7 years.

I had missed that.