Thai Govt Urged To Have Pharmaceutical Giants Reduce Price Of Cancer Drugs

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Govt urged to have pharmaceutical giants reduce price of cancer drugs

Pongphon Sarnsamak

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Health experts are calling the government get pharmaceutical giants to slash the price of six cancer drugs after it was discovered that 200,000 patients could not afford their treatment.

The drugs in question are Trastuzumab for breast cancer, Rituximab for cancer of the lymphatic system, Bevacizumab for colon cancer, Imatinib for leukaemia as well as Erlotinib and Gefitinib, the two drugs needed to treat lung cancer.

Since these drugs are not included in the national drug list, the country's three main national healthcare schemes, namely the National Health Security Office (NHSO), Social Security Office (SSO) and the Comptroller General Department's Civil Servant Medical Benefit (CSMB) cannot provide them for free. Hence, many patients face a greater risk because they cannot afford these drugs, Dr Pongsathorn Pokpermdee, an independent health economist, said.

He was speaking at a press conference yesterday to inform the public about inequalities in the system.

According to the Public Health Ministry's record from 2005 to 2009, cancer is a leading cause of death in Thailand. In 2009 alone, some 56,058 people succumbed to cancer.

The three national healthcare schemes offer different medical benefits to cancer patients. Under the CSMB, cancer patients are provided full coverage for treatment of the disease, while subscribers of SSO and NHSO have to pay for the medication themselves.

Pongsathorn said he found that Trastuzumab costs about Bt98,340 per injection, which means breastcancer patients need to pay about Bt1,180,080 per year for their medication. Those with lymphoma cancer need to pay Bt69,157 per injection of Rituximab or Bt829,884 per year. For patients with colon cancer, an injection of Bevacizumab would cost them Bt 21,602.50, or Bt1,036,920 per year. Leukaemia patients and those with stomach cancer have to pay Bt4,094 per tablet of Imatinib, and since they have to take one tablet a day, they will end up having to pay Bt1,494,310 per year.

Patients with lung cancer have to pay Bt3,086 per a pill of Erlotinib or Bt1,126,390 per year, in addition to Bt2,463 per tablet of Gefitinib, which would cost them Bt898,995 a year. Even though these two lung cancer drugs have been put on a special list to help patients, they have limited access to the drugs.

"It is horrible when patients find out that there are many drugs in the market that can save their lives, but that they cannot make it because they can't afford these drugs," Pongsathorn said.

If these three national healthcare schemes collaborate with each other to merge the management for cancer medical benefits and negotiate with drug makers to cut the drug price, cancer patients would have a better chance.

Previously, NHSO had tried to negotiate the cutting down of the price of Rituximab used to treat lymphoma cancer and rheumatoid arthritis, but the drug manufacturers had only agreed to cut the price down to Bt25,000.

-- The Nation 2012-06-19

[theblether]

Okay.......I'm going to say Big Like for the attempt to get the costs down however!!!.............the big pharmaceutical companies are not charities. It costs them a fortune in research and development and very few of their drugs get past the clinical trial stage. They must earn so that they can develop new generation cures.

There has to be a partnership of government funding, the companies discounting, and insurance industry growth in Thailand. That along with health education and personal responsibility will make a good start to solving the problem.

It's a long road though, and anyone who has lost someone to cancer will know it's a vicious road too. It's a terrible thing, and anything that will alleviate cancer suffering gets my vote.

[lannarebirth]

Okay.......I'm going to say Big Like for the attempt to get the costs down however!!!.............the big pharmaceutical companies are not charities. It costs them a fortune in research and development and very few of their drugs get past the clinical trial stage. They must earn so that they can develop new generation cures.

There has to be a partnership of government funding, the companies discounting, and insurance industry growth in Thailand. That along with health education and personal responsibility will make a good start to solving the problem.

It's a long road though, and anyone who has lost someone to cancer will know it's a vicious road too. It's a terrible thing, and anything that will alleviate cancer suffering gets my vote.

http://www.businessinsider.com/yusuf-hamieds-cipla-cancer-drug-2012-6

[SuneeTH]

Drugs, at what ever cost to the government MUST be free.

We live in Thailand. We respect the law and pay the tax, in exchange for the kingdom to save and protect us from all danger, healthwise or otherwise.

[mamypoko]

As a cancer survivor (and aspiring human)...unleash the dogs of group price negotiating

[belg]

why would it be for free? is it free for farang: no, they pay full or premium inflated prices, insurance or not

does some cancers has to do with smoking ? unhealthy eating habits? yes

obese = fat = more hormones that are produced

i almost make it a game now, to count the amount of obese thais i see everywhere (restaurant, street, shopping malls) VS the "normal" ones...

[theblether]

Okay.......I'm going to say Big Like for the attempt to get the costs down however!!!.............the big pharmaceutical companies are not charities. It costs them a fortune in research and development and very few of their drugs get past the clinical trial stage. They must earn so that they can develop new generation cures.

There has to be a partnership of government funding, the companies discounting, and insurance industry growth in Thailand. That along with health education and personal responsibility will make a good start to solving the problem.

It's a long road though, and anyone who has lost someone to cancer will know it's a vicious road too. It's a terrible thing, and anything that will alleviate cancer suffering gets my vote.

http://www.businessi...cer-drug-2012-6

So who is going to pay for the new generation research? The tooth fairy?

[phiphidon]

Okay.......I'm going to say Big Like for the attempt to get the costs down however!!!.............the big pharmaceutical companies are not charities. It costs them a fortune in research and development and very few of their drugs get past the clinical trial stage. They must earn so that they can develop new generation cures.

There has to be a partnership of government funding, the companies discounting, and insurance industry growth in Thailand. That along with health education and personal responsibility will make a good start to solving the problem.

It's a long road though, and anyone who has lost someone to cancer will know it's a vicious road too. It's a terrible thing, and anything that will alleviate cancer suffering gets my vote.

http://www.businessi...cer-drug-2012-6

So who is going to pay for the new generation research? The tooth fairy?

OK it costs billions but they're not in the game purely for altruistic reasons - this article points out that cancer research is targeted on individual, sometimes rare cancers purely because of the profits that can be made (on the whole though the article is balanced and does point out the complexities of cancer treatment)

The other reason for the drug makers’ interest is financial. Patients are often desperate, and insurers risk outrage by denying payments for a cancer drug, even if the odds say it will have little benefit. That has allowed pharmaceutical companies to charge thousands of dollars a month for cancer medicines. Such prices can make drugs for even rare cancers, or drugs that do not work very well, into big moneymakers.

Take Erbitux, developed by ImClone Systems, which costs $10,000 a month. A study in Canada showed that as a last-ditch treatment for colorectal cancer, Erbitux lengthened lives by an average of about one and a half months compared with not treating the cancer at all. Using the price of the drug in the United States and the average length of treatment, the extra cost per patient was about $50,000.............

.................And even some of those drugs offer only a few months at most of extra life or tumor stabilization despite prices that often reach thousands of dollars a month. The drug Tarceva, which costs about $3,500 a month, was approved as a treatment for pancreatic cancer because it improved survival by 12 days..............

..................“As long as the marketplace does not distinguish between modestly effective drugs and dramatically effective drugs, there won’t be an incentive to shift resources to a greater emphasis on a larger benefit,” said Dr. Neal J. Meropol, an oncologist at the University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland who has been studying drug prices.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/health/research/02cancerdrug.html?pagewanted=all