Cancer drugs, image by OPENING.CO
Cancer is probably the biggest enemy of human beings. It is a fatal disease which causes death of millions of people. Effective therapies to cancer is so invaluable and demanding that it could save lives. However, high prices of cancer drugs impede the process of making cancer therapies affordable to patients, worsening the situation of health care. Studies showed that the average price of cancer drugs in the United States rocketed from $5000 to over $100,000 by 2012. Why are cancer drugs so expensive that most families cannot even afford it?
As oncologists, Drs. Hagop Kantarjian and S. Vincent Rajkumar from University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center felt obliged to advocate for affordable cancer drugs. They discussed reasons for these high prices and potential solutions in an article published on Mayo Clinic Proceedings in 2015. They refuted four arguments for high prices from pharmaceutical companies: the enormous effort of research and drug development, the benefits to patients, the market forces and discouragement of innovations by controlling prices.
The authors argued that the main attributors to high cancer drug prices were the established oligopolies of pharmaceutical companies and their prevention from price negotiations. Pharmaceutical companies not only discouraged competition with each other, but tried to prevent cancer treatments entering federal medical care programs in the U.S. Furthermore, prohibition of imported cancer drugs from foreign countries made the matter worse. As a result, cancer drug prices in the U.S. outweighed any region in the world.
Apart from discussing the triggers of high prices, the authors also suggested ways to control the ridiculous increase in cancer drug prices. Solving the problem of monopolies and allowing Medicare to negotiate with the prices would be the most effective solutions. In addition, allowing U.S. Food and Drugs Administration to recommend a target price, facilitate imports of drugs from abroad would also alleviate the pressure of rocketing prices.
Cancer drugs can save lives. Pharmaceutical companies should not dictate the prices, but on the other hand, help reduce the prices, casting the light of hope inside the heart of desperate patients.
Additional Resource: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150316092809.htm
