Patient assistance programs help some and hurt many

[Darryl]

Patient assistance programs help some patients with co-pay subsidies but hurt all of us by supporting higher drug costs. Please read this Bloomberg article and share your thoughts below. bloomberg.com/news/articles...

[gusgold]

Darryl,

Shutting down the charities would only hurt the poor and would not lower drug prices. Medicare Advantage Plans Part D have a maximum out of pocket of around $5500. What the Gov needs to do is change the law and allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices and stop paying Big Pharma List Prices. Check out the price of Novartis AVTS-101...4 million dollars for one shot.

thefiscaltimes.com/2018/11/...

Gus

[Fairwind]

Unfettered Capitalism works for most consumer products and commodities but for life-saving drugs ?? Not so well..Allowing drug companies to charge "what ever the market will bare" results in the nightmare we have now..Big Pharma should at least be forced to reveal the true manufacturing cost of the drug in question. With that number in hand, regulators could "suggest" a fair retail price..Zytiga is manufactured by a small Canadian generic drug maker...J&J needs to fess up to what those pills actually cost..If the drug companies are allowed to run wild with their pricing, they will bankrupt Medicare and Medicaid and push many sick people into early deaths..

[Tjc1 in reply to Fairwind]

Hey i really do think the cost of patented drugs is way to high. But you got to think of the years and $$$ spent on R+ D. Millions? Billions?. And they have to figure in being on one of those lawyer commercials so whats reasonable im not sure but there is more to a med than mixing and bottling.

[Hidden in reply to Tjc1]

There has to be a reasonable amortization schedule to factor in the R&D costs. Pharma shouldn't have a license to print money. Pricing on Hep-C cure? $1000 a pill. Requires something like 6 week course of treatment. In any way related to R&D or manufacturing cost? Nope. Wanna live? Pay up. And then they have an aggressive marketing plan to get tested so you too can be paying up.

[Hidden in reply to Tjc1]

It is university government sponsered research that finds new drugs the drug companies just patient and sell them.

[Beermaker]

I am one of those who gets his expensive drug (Xtandi / Enzalutimide) through a patient assistance program. I could not really afford the drug without the program. Without knowing the true drug costs, the number of people getting assistance, the number who aren't and could really use it, and the number who pay full cost, it really is hard to understand what the true costs and impacts are. When I see posters complaining about the cost of drugs like this, I always tell them to research what assistance is available. My doctors at the clinic I use did the research for me, and got me into the program about 15 months ago.

What to do? What Gus recommends is a good step. Full "medicare for all" would be a wonderful solution. I feel the pharma guys will just charge whatever they think they can get away with, especially the unique lifesaving drugs like Xtand and Zytiga. This needs to be fixed, in a way that does not hurt the pharma guys to the point where they stop exploring and testing for new drugs. Total government funding for drug research via government agencies? We might get more research into natural remedies that are MUCH more reasonable in cost and as such are not worth much of anything to the pharma guys. It is a complicated problem that truly needs a permanent fix.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[monte1111]

I believe everyone should have to pay the same. The same for every treatment, the same for every drug, the same for everything. But, oops, guess that would make me a communist.