British researchers analyzed data that shed light on the rising cost of cancer drugs in the U.S., which are priced 600 times higher than the actual cost.

Consumer surveys illustrate a serious and widespread concern, presidential candidates push health care reform in their political platforms and the media continues to publicize drug makers putting profits over people.

The unreasonably high cost of pharmaceuticals in the United States has grabbed attention from politicians, advocates and consumers. Now, research exposing the actual cost of cancer drugs juxtaposed with the price charged by pharmaceutical companies will add further fuel to the fire.

Data Exposes Price-Gouging

The same cancer medications are priced differently all over the world, but these drugs are the most expensive in the U.S.
Image: 123rf

Pharmaceutical companies must pay various costs to bring a drug to market, including funding the active ingredient and other chemicals, developing the combination into a pill, arranging packaging and shipping and budgeting for a profit margin.

British researchers analyzed data that shows five common cancer drugs are priced 600 times higher than they actually cost. The cost of ingredients came from a public database called IndiaInfoDrive. The report is be presented at the European Cancer Conference in Vienna.

Leukemia drug Glivec, also known as imatinib, costs pharmaceutical companies $159 in total. However, it’s priced at $106,322 in the U.S. and $31,867 in the U.K. In Brazil, the generic version is around $8,000.

“We were quite surprised just how cheap a lot of these cancer drugs really are,” pharmacologist Andrew Hill of the University of Liverpool said. “There’s a lot of scope for prices to come down.”

Four other drugs in the same class, called tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKIs), also had shocking true cost comparisons.

These drugs treat cancer in the lung, breast, liver, pancreas and thyroid, in addition to leukemia. Tarceva (erlotinib), Nexavar (sorafenib), Tykerb (lapatinib) and Sprycel (dasatinib) cost anywhere from $236 for Tarceva to $4,022 for Tykerb. In the U.S., these drugs are priced at around $78,797 to $135,679.

According to Hill, more than a million cancer patients worldwide would benefit from TKIs but cannot access them because of the hefty price tag.

“Very few of them are being treated now,” he said.

The Preposterous Price Of Cancer Drugs

Health professionals believe that the price of these drugs is not equal to their value.
Image: John Tabita

The price-gouging of cancer drugs has continued to rise overall. Dr. Peter B. Bach of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York tracked the rise. After adjusting for inflation he found an estimated 100 percent increase since 1965.

“The rate of rise exceeds the rise in benefits from these drugs,” Bach says. “This is a ginned-up pricing structure that isn’t a product of careful analysis. It’s not a bunch of guys in green eye-shades but a bit of dart-throwing and chutzpah. And if there’s a critical Op Ed piece or a Twitter avalanche [in response to a high price] they’ll lower it.”

Three years ago, Bach and two of his peers wrote a New York Times opinion-editorial about the refusal to prescribe a new colon cancer drug at Memorial Sloan Kettering that wasn’t as effective as the high price tag made it seem.

In response to the piece, the drug maker cut the price in half. A similar response from the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals occurred after a public outcry caused by the fact that he raised the price of Daraprim from$13.50 to $750-per-pill.

Hope For A Change

Presidential candidates such as Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have both led campaigns that include health care reform.
Image: Southside Pride

While Obama’s administration continues to work on a way to lower the prices of pharmaceuticals nationwide, democratic candidates are attempting to make price-reducing proposals a part of their platform.

“We’ve spoken with Bernie Sanders’ advisers and shown him our results with HIV, hepatitis and cancer drugs,” Hill says.

Because Washington’s pharmaceutical lobbyists are extremely powerful, coming to an agreement on a policy change will be difficult. Pharmaceutical manufacturers argue that regulating prices will limit the likeliness of new drugs being brought to market.

Clinton’s proposal to regulate drug prices “would restrict patients’ access to medicines, result in fewer new treatments for patients, cost countless jobs across the country and could end our nation’s standing as the world leader in biomedical innovation,” according to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association.

The association is not alone. Bach critiques Clinton’s idea that companies should be required to assign a certain proportion of their revenue to research and development.

“Pharma uses the language of a regulated monopoly like utility companies, which argue that they need to be compensated for infrastructure costs,” Bach says. “Apple never says, ‘We charge $600 for an iPhone because of our research.’ Or Ford never says a Taurus costs X dollars because of its R&D.”

In addition, Bach disagrees with the idea that high drug prices are justified if they save patients money on hospitalization or transplants.

“That argument is unique to the pharmaceutical industry,” Bach says. “Can you imagine if Poland Spring priced their bottled water to include the value of avoiding cholera? Or if the price of condoms included the cost of an avoided pregnancy?”

The post Cancer Medication Is Grossly Overpriced In The U.S. appeared first on Citizens Report.

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has created a bill to regulate drug prices, including Medicare Part D negotiation, drug importation from Canada, Medicaid and Medicare rebates, the prohibition of pay-for-delay deals, penalties for fraud convictions and drug pricing cost and transparency.

“Feel the Bern,” the slogan of democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, is popularly exchanged among adolescents who favor his platform.

Sanders is known for his opinions on income inequality, universal healthcare, parental leave, climate change, and LGBT rights. The politician’s most recent endeavor, a bill to reduce prescription drug prices, addresses the issue of medicine affordability in an increasingly concentrated and competitive market.

All About The Bill

Bernie Sanders is the face, the creator and the biggest advocate of the bill.
Image: NY Post

The bill is titled the Prescription Drug Affordability Act of 2015. If the bill passes, network negotiations and price changes will begin on Jan. 1, 2016.

Focused on making changes to the prescription drug market, the bill includes nine major areas of focus, including:

• “Negotiation of lower covered part D drug prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries.”
• “Acceleration of the closing of the Medicare Part D donut hole.”
• “Prescription drug importation.”
• “Sense of the Senate regarding trade agreements.”
• “Requiring drug manufacturers to provide drug rebates for drugs dispensed to low-income individuals.”
• “Applying the medicaid additional rebate requirement to generic drugs.”
• “Preserving access to affordable generics.”
• “Conditions on award of drug exclusivity.”
• “Drug manufacturer reporting.”

Backing The Bill

Although Republicans notoriously disagree with allowing the federal government to gain a tight legislative grasp on the country, members of the political party have approved some portions of the bill.
Image: The American Nurse

Sanders frequently receives emails from individuals who can’t afford their medication. A 2014 Commonwealth Fund survey found that about 20 percent of U.S. adults didn’t file a prescription because it was unaffordable.

“Well, obviously, they will get sicker and in some cases, they will die,” Sanders said. “This is an unacceptable situation we must fix.”

Pharmaceutical companies allocate the majority of the budget to sales and marketing, leaving little funding for research and development. Sanders believes transparency is necessary to create pricing that has allows the company to make a fair profit at a fair price to consumers.

The bill is aimed at keeping generic drug prices as low as possible, using evidence from other countries to illustrate how serious the pricing problem is in the United States.

“It is unacceptable that Americans pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs,” Sanders said in a statement. “For years, generic drugs have made it possible for people to buy the medicine they need at lower prices. We need to make certain that generics remain affordable.”

In addition, he wants to outlaw the practice of allowing one company to pay another company to keep generics off the market, which stifles competition.

Robert Moffit, a senior fellow, opposes the bill. He asserts that federal regulation of prescription drugs would lower access.

“When the government fixes prices, the government excludes the companies that do not or cannot accept the fixed government prices from participating in Medicare,” Moffit wrote. “That means that all seniors would not get Medicare access to the drugs of those companies.”

Legislators expect to be faced with opposition from Republicans on certain key points. However, the importation of Canadian prescription drugs is supported by both parties.

It doesn’t make sense for a politician to advocate for free trade and market competition but not support that measure, Moffit said.

“The greed of the pharmaceutical industry is killing Americans,” he said.

The post A Bill To Regulate Prescription Drug Price appeared first on Citizens Report.