For the love of money

When I came across this article by Matthew Perrone, Associated Press Health Writer titled Medicare to pay for $93,000 prostate cancer drug, I was overwhelmed by not only the cost of the drug but also by the inhumanity of those who make this drug.  They are not inhuman to make it but they are inhuman to charge so much as if trying to put a price tag on life.

The article reported that “Medicare officials said Wednesday that the program will pay the $93,000 cost of prostate cancer drug Provenge, an innovative therapy that typically gives men suffering from an incurable stage of the disease an extra four months to live.  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid said the biotech drug made by Dendreon Corp. is a "reasonable and necessary" medicine. The decision ensures that millions of men would be able to afford the drug through the government-backed health care coverage.”  Personally I think that is the best decision considering a life really does not have a price tag and no amount of money will ever replace a loved one.  What bothered me more was some of the other portions of the article.

Portions like “with government reimbursement, analysts estimate Provenge could rack up $1 billion in sales next year. The news sent Dendreon shares up 66 cents to $36.20 in after-hours trading. The stock closed the regular session down 34 cents at $35.54 before the announcement.    A growing number of biologically engineered cancer drugs are being priced in the $100,000 range, including therapies from Roche and Eli Lilly & Co. Last week, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. received approval for a new melanoma drug that will be priced at roughly $120,000 per patient.”  Apparently these drug companies have never heard of a cost profit analysis which is designed to say how much needs to be sold in order to break even or turn a profit.  Surely knowing that benefits of this product and other life-saving drugs that are discovered can be lowered in price so that Medicare and any one else purchasing it do not go broke trying to provide this nation’s citizens with a little piece of mind after discovering that they have cancer.

Long term pricing can be more worthwhile than trying to make all of the money spent on development from the first group of those who are first through the door.  Business needs to get a clue that if their product does what it is advertised to do and it is affordable for those who require it most, the drug will stay on the lips of many and literally sell itself.  Stock prices would rise anyway because investors will see this drug becoming a stable of cancer treatment centers all over the globe.  Maybe it’s just a dream that companies will finally put people above profits and maybe Dr. Steven Miles, a professor at the University of Minnesota's Center for Bioethics has it right when he was quoted as saying “The problem is that we have created a health care system that is uniquely inadequate in terms of access to primary health care, which is where you get the most bang for your buck."