KEY TAKEWAY: Per ASCO “specialty medications accounted for 37% of drug spending in 2015, and projections are that they will account for 50% of all drug spending by 2018. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Oncology drug pricing is expected to increase at a rate of 20% per year for the next several years.[/inlinetweet] Health care expenditures, including drug costs, have become a major cause of personal bankruptcy, and financial toxicity has become a common term used to describe the financial distress that accompanies the treatment of patients with cancer”.
Cancer drug costs
KEY TAKEAWAY: When trade news publications start to question pharma practices on pricing and there is no response you have to wonder if they really care about the patients we serve at all.
KEY TAKEAWAY: The U.S. is not prepared for the coming crisis in healthcare that could have a damaging effect of caregivers as well as patients. The crisis consists of two parts: first, there is the rising cost of new prescription drugs, especially those to treat cancer. Second, is the costs of extended care at a time when Congress is trying to gut Medicaid.
KEY TAKEAWAY: As ASCO is well under way the issue of drug pricing is once again taking center stage. “These drugs cost too much,” Leonard Saltz, chief of gastrointestinal oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said in a speech heard by thousands of doctors here for the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
POST SUMMARY: According to the Dallas Morning News, five years ago, cancer treatment accounted for just $157 billion of the nation’s annual $2.6 trillion health bill. Propelled by new drugs and an aging population, however, cancer spending is rising quickly. A forecast from the National Cancer Institute said spending could hit $207 billion by the end of the decade.