$60,000 for 42 extra days of life... Drug companies set the price... Private practice oncologists have an incentive to prescribe more expensive drugs: the commission they make from cancer drugs is their single biggest source of income. One company lowered the price of its cancer drug so that doctors could get it for less. "Buy [the drug] from us for $11,000 and we'll send you a check for $6,000," they told the doctor. "Then you give it to your patient and you get to bill the patient's insurance company as if it cost $11,000."
60 Minutes Confirms Drug Companies are Bankrupting Americans
by Joe Graedon, People's Pharmacy, 6 October 2014Full transcript and video of 60 Minutes Report available here.
The cost of new cancer drugs is out of control and is rapidly bankrupting patients as well as the health care system.
Two weeks ago we wrote a newspaper column about the incredible cost of medications for cancer and hepatitis C. We pointed out that the hepatitis drugSovaldi (sofosbuvir) costs $1,000 per pill and has to be taken for at least 12 weeks. Keytruda (pembrolizumab) for melanoma could cost $150,000 a year.
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The cost of new cancer drugs is out of control and is rapidly bankrupting patients as well as the health care system.
Two weeks ago we wrote a newspaper column about the incredible cost of medications for cancer and hepatitis C. We pointed out that the hepatitis drugSovaldi (sofosbuvir) costs $1,000 per pill and has to be taken for at least 12 weeks. Keytruda (pembrolizumab) for melanoma could cost $150,000 a year.