Making Cancer Drugs More Affordable

[cheeryble]

Of interest to Americans and all of us, 100+ senior American doctors in Mayo Proceedings propose specific steps to reduce cancer drug treatment costs from their present outrageous levels.
Of relevance to Thailand and the rest of the world as these price levels surely trickle down.

http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/pb/assets/raw/Health%20Advance/journals/jmcp/jmcp_pr90_7_5.pdf

Edited July 27, 2015 by cheeryble

[CaptHaddock]

When my Thai friends ask if America has corruption I explain that the cop who stops you for speeding probably does not want a bribe, but the doctors as a whole are on the take from the corrupt pharmaceutical companies.

[faraday]

Pharmaceutical companies are there for profit only, & not as so many believe, here to help us.

Although developing a new drug & bringing it to market costs a vast amount of money, they do of course need to recoup the outlay.

Yup, & earn a good profit - nothing too wrong with that. But when they continue to fleece the customers, who then suffer, it astonishes me.

Then you get the "yogurt knitters" who maintain that Marijuana cures cancer!!

[CaptHaddock]

The drug companies are corrupt because they have corrupted the patent system, which is the granting of monopolies as an incentive to develop products that would not otherwise be developed, into unproductive rent-seeking on a vast scale. They further suborn malfeasance on the part of the doctors by funding research that is so biased to their economic interests as to be essentially crooked. They have turned the FDA into the shining American example of regulatory capture on a par with the SEC. Certainly, the drug companies are motivated by profit, but then so is the mafia. In neither case is their effect on society necessarily justified by the transparency of their motivation.

[Sheryl]

When my Thai friends ask if America has corruption I explain that the cop who stops you for speeding probably does not want a bribe, but the doctors as a whole are on the take from the corrupt pharmaceutical companies.

No, not "doctors as a whole". Some doctors, yes, in varying ways and degrees. But not even most let alone all.

[Sheryl]

Title has been edited to better reflect the actual content of the article.

The article is specific to drug costs in the US, which are the highest in the world--- even European versions of same patented drug cost less. In Thailand, the Compulsory Licensing law gives the government the option of producing local brands of even patented drugs. In some cases it does so. In other cases, e.g. imatinib, it has used the threat of doing so to successfully leverage negotiations with maufacturers.

[CaptHaddock]

When my Thai friends ask if America has corruption I explain that the cop who stops you for speeding probably does not want a bribe, but the doctors as a whole are on the take from the corrupt pharmaceutical companies.

No, not "doctors as a whole". Some doctors, yes, in varying ways and degrees. But not even most let alone all.

Well-known individual doctors, like the famous child psychiatrist at Harvard who promoted drugs for "hyperactivity" without disclosing his payments from the manufacturer, are indeed corrupted directly. Other go on junkets paid for by drug companies. But virtually all of them get their information on drugs only from the drug companies, which is a form of systemic corruption.

[CaptHaddock]

Title has been edited to better reflect the actual content of the article.

The article is specific to drug costs in the US, which are the highest in the world--- even European versions of same patented drug cost less. In Thailand, the Compulsory Licensing law gives the government the option of producing local brands of even patented drugs. In some cases it does so. In other cases, e.g. imatinib, it has used the threat of doing so to successfully leverage negotiations with maufacturers.

And the goal of the Trans Pacific Partnership currently being pushed by the US govt is to protect "intellectual property" further very much including drug patents.

The secretive TPP deal involves 12 countries and nearly 40 percent of the global economy. On Wednesday, WikiLeaks released a leaked draft of another chapter of the secret negotiating text, this time the TPP’s so-called Healthcare Annex. Newly revealed details of the draft show the TPP would give major pharmaceutical companies more power over public access to medicine and weaken public healthcare programs. The leaked draft also suggests the TPP would prevent Congress from passing reforms to lower drug costs. One of the practices that would be allowed is known as "evergreening." It lets drug companies extend the life of a patent by slightly modifying their product and then getting a new patent.

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/6/11/backlash_against_tpp_grows_as_leaked

The intent is to bring more stringent drug patent enforcement to Thailand and the other countries of the TPP.

[Tolley]

Cancer drugs are really big business and they really rape and pillage the vulnerable patients with the exorbitant costs for these drugs.

The problem for patients is that with the current system in place there will never be any trials or great research into anything that the drug companies cant patent.

Further to that there are existing drugs that have strong anti cancer properties but because they is no money in them they are ignored.

So the so called war on cancer which was started back in the 70s and has cost billions of dollars has not really reaped any great benefits.

The main benefits have been in early screening and therefore catching cancers early and curing them with surgery but synthetic drugs have not proven to very effective and of course many have significant side effects that severely impact quality of life.

[DogNo1]

A new cholesterol-lowering drug has been announced that will more dramatically lower lipid levels, especially the level of LDL. Some American medical associations including, I think, the AHA are recommending that everyone, including children, who have LDL levels of over 70 (!) will benefit from taking the drug. This is astounding considering the damage caused by the present cholesterol-lowering drugs including Lipitor, Zocor and others. What could be cau$ing the doctor$ to advocate for this new drug?

What nobody in the blog has mentioned is that the pharmaceutical companies buy up the manufacturers of generic drugs after their own drugs have gone off patent so that they can raise the price of the generics.

I am hoping against hope that Bernie Sanders will be elected president of the USA and put a stop to the widespread financial mischief. I would love to hear him say, as FDR did, "I welcome their hatred," meaning that of the financial and corporate barons. Link to the speech here:

[cheeryble]

I like all the proposals in the News Release.

Starting at number one bullet point of course it will be named.....by the usual suspects......as anti free-market.

But the healthcare system from top to bottom is hardly free market, from the limited number of places at medical school to the limited number of companies that can do R and D and production, to the fact that treatment is so often urgent that real choice doesn't come into it.

Hey how dare you.....the government drug purchasing agency (for example) dare to set the top price you'll pay (as happens in the UK after considerable research and negotiation)?

Well the response is "You're (often) the sole provider, and set prices from that position of strength.....now we, the sole purchaser, will counteract with our strength."

What's more (and this is another bullet point isn't it?) we better be satisfied the drug is effective by following the gold standard of testing.

etc etc etc .

ps: bravo to the Mayo which was itself founded in a revolutionary manner and where if I am not mistaken physicians are well looked after but are paid by salary rather than by fee......surely the right way.

Edited July 27, 2015 by cheeryble

[VBF]

When my Thai friends ask if America has corruption I explain that the cop who stops you for speeding probably does not want a bribe, but the doctors as a whole are on the take from the corrupt pharmaceutical companies.

No, not "doctors as a whole". Some doctors, yes, in varying ways and degrees. But not even most let alone all.

I think what does happen though (and this is UK not US) is that doctors get a "preferred list" of drugs for all conditions.

That list is derived from research carried out by the "pharma" companies and is seldom questioned. I and several of my friends have been given prescriptions, gone away and done research only to find out that:

there are side effects that the GP didn't mention

and

there are medical experts all over the world who say that the particular drug is not a good idea

A good example is Statins about which there are many controversial and opposing opinions. These are frequently prescribed by UK GPs to combat high cholesterol but IMO are verging on dangerous.

Edited July 28, 2015 by VBF

[faraday]

Whether or not it is still done in the UK, I know that drug reps used to give cash to GP's to entice them to prescribe a compound.

It was called 'Bonusing'.

And, as VBF mentions, then there's the malarkey about Statins. Seems they help with soo much, even reducing cancer rates!!

[gray steve]

May god bless you