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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2013 22:04:40 GMT -8
An effective eye drug is available for $50. But many doctors choose a $2,000 alternative The two drugs have been declared equivalently miraculous. Tested side by side in six major trials, both prevent blindness in a common old-age affliction. Biologically, they are cousins. They’re even made by the same company.
But one holds a clear price advantage.
Avastin costs about $50 per injection.
Lucentis costs about $2,000 per injection.
Doctors choose the more expensive drug more than half a million times every year, a choice that costs the Medicare program, the largest single customer, an extra $1 billion or more annually.
Spending that much may make little sense for a country burdened by ever- rising health bills, but as is often the case in American health care, there is a certain economic logic: Doctors and drugmakers profit when more-costly treatments are adopted.
Genentech, a division of the Roche Group, makes both products but reaps far more profit when it sells the more expensive drug. Although Lucentis is about 40 times as expensive as Avastin to buy, the cost of producing the two drugs is similar, according to scientists familiar with the drugs and the industry.
Doctors, meanwhile, may benefit when they choose the more expensive drug. Under Medicare repayment rules for drugs given by physicians, they are reimbursed for the average price of the drug plus 6 percent. That means a drug with a higher price may be easier to sell to doctors than a cheaper one. In addition, Genentech offers rebates to doctors who use large volumes of the more expensive drug.
“Genentech continues to maintain that Lucentis is the most appropriate medicine,” the company said in a statement, adding that it costs “significantly” more to make and is tailored for use in the eye. The drug “has made an immense impact.”
Many ophthalmologists, however, are skeptical that it provides any added value over the cheaper alternative.
“Lucentis is Avastin — it’s the same damn molecule with a few cosmetic changes,” said J. Gregory Rosenthal, a Toledo ophthalmologist who, outraged by the price, co-founded a group called Physicians for Clinical Responsibility to protest its use. “Yet Americans are paying a billion dollars every year for no good reason — unless you count making Genentech rich.” The story of Genentech’s two drugs, Lucentis and Avastin, began with a scientific marvel — a breakthrough in biology that, thanks to the vast budgets of U.S. entitlement programs, has produced enormous financial returns.
Those profits have yielded benefits. By paying for such drugs without regard to cost, the Medicare system has helped stimulate investment in medical research that contributes to the development of more lifesaving technologies.
But the flow of cash also pushes up the health-care costs that are projected to deplete federal budgets. For while Genentech has aggressively marketed the more expensive drug and sought to restrict the use of the cheaper one, critics say, Medicare has been powerless to do anything but pay up.
That’s because over the past seven years, despite pleas from the Food and Drug Administration and doctors groups, Genentech has maintained the barriers that make it harder for doctors to use the cheaper drug.
~Capitalism and medicine....perhaps not such a good thing.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2013 5:09:37 GMT -8
Um, Bausch and Lomb have been raking people over the coals for years. I have had eye surgery and tiny little bottles of drops cost a huge fortune. Yes, some medications are indeed expensive. But, there have been drops like steroid drops that have been around for years. I suffer from dry eyes. And, I have to use Muro 128 which is simply Hypertonic Saline in a gel form like Vaseline. It has no preservatives. And, most eye ointments over the counter have preservatives which irritate my eyes. Two TINY little tubes of this cost me over $40 dollars. And, I use one tiny tube every 3 days so do the math. If it had some kind of cutting edge medication, then fine. But it is hypertonic SALINE. And, they are the only ones who make this so yeah, it sucks to get raked over the coals.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2013 5:14:28 GMT -8
That’s because over the past seven years, despite pleas from the Food and Drug Administration and doctors groups, Genentech has maintained the barriers that make it harder for doctors to use the cheaper drug
Maintaining the barriers isn't a function of Capitalism but of Govt regulation. Hello. They can't maintain barriers unless the law and weight of Govt allows it. Govt has allowed Medicine to set up monopolies in so much that nurses can't do diddly unless blessed by a doctor. We have made doctors the High Priests when other highly trained, well qualified providers could certainly take over a lot of their functions and duties. But, yes, work in COOPERATION with each other. And, Obama care might actually create opportunities after it crashes.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2013 8:32:15 GMT -8
Pharmaceutical CORPORATIONS own your ass, they purchased your government. lmao. Why do so many Americans come to Canada to get prescription AND non prescription drugs? 20 Signs That The Pharmaceutical Companies Are Running A 280 Billion Dollar Money Making Scamf you could get 70 percent of Americans addicted to your drugs and rake in $280 billion a year in the process, would you do it? If you could come up with a “pill for every problem” and charge Americans twice as much for those pills as people in other countries pay, would you do it? If you could make more money than you ever dreamed possible by turning the American people into the most doped up people in the history of the planet, would you do it? In America today, the number of people hooked on legal drugs absolutely dwarfs the number of people hooked on illegal drugs. And sadly, the number of people killed by legal drugs absolutely dwarfs the number of people killed by illegal drugs. But most Americans assume that if a drug is “legal” that it must be safe. After all, the big pharmaceutical companies and the federal government would never allow us to take anything that would hurt us, right? Sadly, the truth is that they don’t really care about us. They don’t really care that prescription painkillers are some of the most addictive drugs on the entire planet and that they kill more Americans each year than heroin and cocaine combined. They don’t care that antidepressants are turning tens of millions of Americans into zombies and can significantly increase the chance of suicide (just look at the warning label). All the big pharmaceutical companies really care about is making as much money as they possibly can. The following are 20 signs that the pharmaceutical companies are running a $280 billion money making scam… (Read More.....) link
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Post by Willing Sniper on Dec 9, 2013 8:34:03 GMT -8
Capitalism is a fucking cancer.
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Post by Willing Sniper on Dec 9, 2013 8:36:22 GMT -8
So the government 'should' interfere with business? Regulate?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2013 8:41:23 GMT -8
So the government ' should' interfere with business? Regulate? I know right? Fycking hypocrite!
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Post by Willing Sniper on Dec 9, 2013 8:51:49 GMT -8
I love it. This shit has been going on for decades, but it's Obama's fault. It must be like wearing a very small iron box on your head.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2013 4:10:36 GMT -8
Who said it was Obama's fault? Or do you just like to always make shit up because you can't help yourself?
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Post by Crusher on Dec 10, 2013 6:39:16 GMT -8
I love it. This shit has been going on for decades, but it's Obama's fault. It must be like wearing a very small iron box on your head. It's not Obama's fault. It's Bush's fault!
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Post by Willing Sniper on Dec 10, 2013 7:20:33 GMT -8
Actually it's Reagan's fault
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