46 d) Recovering the cost of R & D to create drugs & Cancer
“We can find no evidence to support the widely believed claims from industry that lower prices in other industrialized countries do not allow companies to recover their R&D costs so they have to charge Americans more to make up the difference and pay for these ‘foreign free riders,’” Light wrote on his website.
Big Pharma Cashes in on Americans Paying (Higher) Prices for Prescription Drugs
Posted October 15th, 2014 by Michelle Llamas& filed under Drug & Device Manufacturers.
Life changes for anyone dealing with a chronic illness or life-threatening disease, starting with cancer. Patients and family members automatically cope with extraordinary amounts of stress and anxiety.
Many people find that coming to terms with a serious medical battle is only part of the story. The other part is money. It costs a lot of money to be sick in America, and it turns out that Big Pharma employs business tactics to ensure that the cost is higher than it needs to be.
In a revelation earlier this month, 60 Minutes exposed the skyrocketing price of cancer drugs. Doctors at cancer centers across the country spoke out against pharmaceutical drug companies that drive up the cost of lifesaving drugs.
“We’re starting to see the term ‘financial toxicity’ being used in the literature. Individual patients are going into bankruptcy trying to deal with these (drug) prices,” Memorial Sloan Kettering gastrointestinal oncologist Dr. Leonard Saltz told 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl.
Many cancer drugs cost well over $100,000 for a year’s worth of medicine. In the fight against cancer, most people can expect to be on more than one drug. The bill for medications can escalate to nearly $300,000, a price tag that doesn’t include fees charged by a doctor or a hospital. Health insurance companies – including government polices like Medicare – don’t cover the full cost of these drugs. Some policies don’t cover some of these drugs at all.
In reality, 60 Minutes highlighted a problem that has been going on in the United States for decades.
Americans Pay More for Prescription Drugs than Any Other Country
stay tuned next week for more on this subject